Local Firm To Finish 2 Circle Line Stations

Source : The Strait Times, 19 September 07

A HOME-GROWN firm, Chye Joo Construction, has won the tender to finish building the MacPherson and Tai Seng MRT stations - a Circle Line job started by Sweden's NCC International five years ago.

NCC's progress faltered late last year and work ground to almost a halt when concrete prices soared earlier this year in the wake of an Indonesian sand ban.

This led the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to call for a fresh tender in July for 'major outstanding works' on the two stations.

Chye Joo, which is building part of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway, clinched the job for $17.5 million. It beat fellow local firms Hock Lian Seng Infrastructure (which made a $17.9 million bid) and KTC Civil Engineering & Construction ($21 million bid).

The LTA has also invited bids for the building of an underpass on Upper Paya Lebar Road - a job which NCC was also supposed to do.

The underpass, to allow traffic to bypass the busy Bartley Road junction, had been bundled with the $340 million project to build the Tai Seng and MacPherson stations - two of 29 stops along the 33.5km Circle Line.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong- headquartered Gammon Construction has clinched a $130 million job to revamp what could be Singapore's most complex and congested road junction, located in a heavily built-up area.

Work on the Woodsville Interchange - which links Serangoon, Upper Serangoon, Bendemeer and MacPherson roads, as well as the Pan-Island Expressway - will start in the next couple of months.

The job calls for building three tunnels and a flyover - the most ambitious mix of tunnels and flyovers ever attempted here. At $130 million, it is also the costliest junction job to date.

The North-East MRT Line and the deep tunnel sewerage system are under the junction.

The intersection - built in 1982 and last upgraded in 1994 - has been a bugbear with motorists. During peak hours, it can take close to 10 minutes to clear it.

This new 'spaghetti junction' - a complicated and intertwined intersection - is expected to be finished by end-2011.

It will allow drivers to 'travel seamlessly from Upper Serangoon Road to Bendemeer Road, MacPherson Road to Bendemeer Road, Serangoon Road to Upper Serangoon Road, and from the Pan-Island Expressway to Kallang Way'', the LTA said.

Gammon is a veteran of road and MRT projects here.