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At the time of its completion, the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway was one of Southeast Asia's longest underground road tunnel
Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway, Singapore
The tunnel and viaduct made the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway a challenging project
At the time of its completion, the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway was one of Southeast Asia's longest underground road tunnel
Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway, Singapore
The tunnel and viaduct made the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway a challenging project
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Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway

The Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) is a 12 km long strategic road link between the existing East Coast Park Expressway (ECP) in the south and Tampines Expressway (TPE) in the north-east. The KPE comprises 9 km of underground road and 3 km of surface level road, together with major interchanges with the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE), ECP and TPE. It is currently the longest underground tunnel in South-East Asia.

CPG Consultants designed a 2.6 km section of KPE between Ubi Road 2 and Defu Road 3; and a 1.64 km section of the KPE between the ECP and PIE. This comprised all elevated slip roads, at-grade highway, ventilation building and landscaping, traffic signs and road markings, pedestrian overhead bridges and link sewers. The scope also included significant temporary works such as temporary vehicular bridges, diaphragm walls, temporary steel shoring and traffic diversion during construction.

CPG has since contributed its expertise to other expressways, such as the Singapore’s first undersea road, the Marina-Coastal Expressway (MCE). The dual five-lane expressway along the city-state’s southern coast is a vital transportation link between its new downtown, Marina Bay, and the rest of the island.

Project Details

Project country

Singapore

COMPLETION DATE

2008

SERVICES RENDERED

Architectural Design, Civil & Structural Engineering, Transportation Engineering

Key Features

Innovative technology used

CPG’s engineers oversaw a series of deep excavations some 20 metres below ground. What made it particularly challenging was that the expressway ran through an area that was historically a river but has since become heavily built-up. Moreover, the tunnelling works had to bypass many obstacles, including viaducts of the existing Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, to link the expressway with existing ones such as the PIE. The project team thus had to formulate stiffer designs to hold the soft ground up during excavation, while retaining ground stability, to protect the urban infrastructure located in close proximity.

Project Member Quotes

We had to divert the PIE several times to build the tunnel and the viaduct. The goal was to do it in the least number of steps, so we coordinated with our contractor to avoid unnecessary work. Although there were multiple diversions, we were able to merge them seamlessly with minimal impact on navigation.

Er. Chuck Kho

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