An artist’s impression of the future link across the PIE for pedestrians and cyclists. - URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
SINGAPORE: The construction of a 1.2km-long walking and cycling link across the Pan-Island Expressway near Potong Pasir will start by October and be completed by the end of 2027.
Connecting St Andrew’s Junior College and the neighbourhood park in Jalan Taman near Serangoon Road, the new link will include Singapore’s longest elevated pedestrian and cycling bridge, as well as new street-level paths and underpasses.
Home-grown construction firm Samwoh, the main contractor for the project, said localised diversions of vehicular traffic and existing pedestrian and cycling paths will be needed to carry out the construction work.
For safety reasons, pedestrians and cyclists may need to make a detour around the construction site, it added in a notice put up on Thursday (Aug 29).
National Development Minister Desmond Lee also warned on Facebook of short-term inconveniences to residents while construction of the new PIE link is ongoing, including noise and temporary road diversions.
“As much as possible, we will try to minimise them,” he said in a post on Aug 29, while also giving a preview of how the new walking and cycling link will look like when it is completed.
The new PIE link is the final piece of a larger plan by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to turn the Kallang Park Connector into a 10km-long seamless commuting route. When the route is fully completed, it will take approximately 30 to 45 minutes to cycle from Bishan to the Central Business District, compared with one to 1½ hours now, URA said previously.
The five other connections that form this Bishan-to-city cycling route were opened to the public in October 2023 after more than two years of construction. They include new underpasses in Upper Boon Keng and Kallang Bahru, as well as new street-level crossings in Serangoon Road and Bendemeer Road.
A tender to construct the new PIE cycling link was called in October 2023, and a $57.6 million contract was awarded to Samwoh in June 2024, according to government procurement website GeBiz.
Samwoh was also the main contractor that built the five other connections that make up the Bishan-to-city route.
According to tender documents seen earlier by The Straits Times, URA plans to build a 682m-long elevated bridge near St Andrew’s Junior School, spanning a 14-lane section of the PIE, as part of the new cycling link.
Infrastructural improvements to the Kallang Park Connector, built in 1992, were mooted nine years ago in 2015. Various issues had to be sorted out, with the PIE link proving the most tricky due to the complex nature of carrying out construction over live traffic.
The bridge will have 22 supporting columns, with the centre column located in the narrow centre divider of the expressway. To create working space for the construction of this column, a section of the PIE towards Tuas will need to be temporarily diverted.
During construction, segments of the bridge will also need to be hoisted, and roads will need to be closed to facilitate this. URA has said that this will be done in stages and only during off-peak periods in the middle of the night.
The initial idea was to build a cable-stayed bridge, similar to the Keppel Bay Bridge, but site constraints at the PIE meant this was not possible.
The final bridge design that URA landed on is more conventional but easier and safer to construct, and also easier to maintain, those involved in the project previously told ST. - The Straits Times/ANN
