Work Begins On $130m Woodsville Interchange

Source : The Business Times, June 20, 2008

To be completed in 2011, it has flyover and 3 road tunnels

CONSTRUCTION of the $130 million Woodsville Interchange began yesterday with a groundbreaking ceremony at Serangoon Road near the former Serangoon fire station.

The new interchange is the largest and most expensive road upgrading project that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is undertaking. When completed in end-2011, it will feature three road tunnels and a flyover to seamlessly connect Serangoon Road, Bendemeer Road, Upper Serangoon Road and Macpherson Road.

Road works: The Woodsville project is complex because of its proximity to the PIE flyover, the North-east MRT Line tunnels and the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System

These four roads and their connecting slip roads to and from the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) make up the Woodsville Interchange - a key artery linking the north-east sector to the city but whose current peak hour traffic volumes are close to capacity.

The groundbreaking ceremony was officiated by LTA chairman Michael Lim, who called the project one of the most complex that the authority has undertaken to date because of its close proximity to the existing PIE flyover, the North-east MRT Line tunnels and the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System.

'We are operating at four levels - viaduct, surface road, tunnel and MRT - making for a truly complicated effort,' he said.

The work includes the construction of a two-lane vehicular tunnel from Serangoon Road to Upper Serangoon Road; a two-lane vehicular tunnel from Upper Serangoon Road to Bendemeer Road; a one-lane vehicular tunnel from Macpherson Road to Bendemeer Road; and a one-lane flyover from the PIE slip road to Kallang Way.

In addition, the existing road junction will be reconfigured to improve the overall traffic flow.

'When this massive project is finished in 2011, the result will be a much improved traffic situation,' said Mr Lim.

'But I wouldn't be telling you the whole story if I did not also advise that this project will come with some temporary disruptions.'

To that, LTA chief executive Yam Ah Mee added: 'As outlined in our Land Transport Master Plan, we have lined up a series of infrastructural developments to the road network over the next 10 years.'

He said that 'to bring these developments to fruition in our heavily built-up environment, we may have to tolerate some inconveniences, even with our best efforts to keep them to a minimum'.