Gardens By The Bay D-walls

Guide walls for the diaphragm wall trench have been installed around the perimeter of the station box, where D-walling works are underway. The T228 site office, together with several equipment and rest sheds have been constructed to the south. Preliminary SI works have also started around Entrance C and the GBME retrieval shaft.

D-walling and Deep Cement Mixing at T228 Gardens By The Bay - Bachy Soletanche Singapore, 31 January 2015

Aerial view of the D-walling and Drilling

Marina South - Deep Cement Mixing

The site at Marina South has hyped up in construction activities with the commencement of Deep Cement Mixing and pipe piling works. Above the proposed station box scatters several crawler cranes, pile casings and a drilling rig. Across Central Boulevard, 2 drilling rigs have been positioned on the site of entrance A. The site office for the T227 project is also located here. Across Marina Boulevard, another drilling rig has been positioned at the cut and cover tunnel, near the soon-to-be-demolished MCE project office. 

Yongnam will be involved in the supply and fabrication of steel struts for the shoring works under this project.

T227 Marina South & Cut and Cover tunnel

Marina Bay D-walls

Intensive ground improvement works are taking place around the Marina Bay site, concurrent with the D-walling. Kori will supply and facilitate in the shoring works for this project. Photos in this update were taken on January 25.

T226 Marina Bay

Shenton Way D-walls

D-walling works commences at the Shenton Way Station. Several ancillary works are also underway to facilitate the construction of the station and bored tunnels.

Drain Diversion

An existing drain runs north-south beneath Asia Square 2, cutting across the proposed station box. East of Asia Square, sheet piling works are on going along the future Central Linear Park for the new temporary box culvert drain. The curvature in the canal design takes into consideration the existing showroom of the Marina One, as well as to avoid the future 2 station entrances along the park that will be constructed under the very same project. The drain will be reinstated at the end of the project.

Demolishment of Golden Bridge

A new signalized junction of Shenton Way & McCallum Street had been operational since December 12 to replace the Golden Bridge which is in the process of demolishment. The demolishment works have already commenced earlier this month, with completion slated by February 22. During this interim, several full-day lane closures along Shenton Way and McCallum Street will be implemented.

T225 Shenton Way

Temporary 8m box culvert monsoon drain diversion

Maxwell D-walls

D-walling works continue at the extremely congested Maxwell site. The Spring Street carpark is undergoing reconfiguration works and is scheduled to reopen by next month.

T223 Maxwell Station

D-walling works

Reconfiguration of Spring Street Carpark

Outram Park D-walls

Activities at the T222 Outram Park site has hyped up with the commencement of the D-walling works for the station. A hydrofraise, along with several crawler cranes and rebar cages scatters the site floor. The silt treatment plant is built next to Pearl's Centre.

Along Outram Road, 2 nights of beam launching works were facilitated over the past 2 weekends for the temporary POB that will replace the existing bridge that is to be demolished. The beam segment across the CTE and Cantonment bound carriageway were launched up on January 11 & 18 respectively. This is the third temporary POB to be built for the Thomson Line.

Construction signage, along with interlocking road barriers have been prominently placed around Eu Tong Sen Street and Outram Road, where utility diversions and the felling of small trees are currently taking place. The mentioned works seen around the corner of the two road's intersection are preparatory to facilitating future traffic diversions - for the construction of the new interchange linkages.

T222 Outram Park

Hydrofraise for the D-walling works

Temporary POB across Outram Road

Piling at Havelock

Piling works have commenced at Havelock. Minor diversions have taken place to accommodate the temporarily-downsized Zion Road that has been reduced from 4 to 3 lanes. Slope treatment is still on going along the center of the station where sheet piles will be installed.

Great World D-walls

D-walling continues at the Great World site. A yard of pre-fabricated rebars can be seen to the south face of Yong An Park. The area around the south launch shaft remains the priority of the ERSS works.

Herrenknecht will supply an EPB and Slurry TBM under T220. The decision to procure an EPB TBM for the north drives to the Orchard Cripple Siding has been affirmed despite challenging mixed face conditions expected along the tunnel route.

Pre-fabricated rebar yard

Segregation of the PUB and LTA projects. The iconic Great World City is seen in the left background.

Orchard Earthworks

The Orchard station is currently the final site along the Thomson Line project to be executing earthworks due to its hilly terrain. Majority of the trees that are required to be felled have already done so, and hoardings around the site have gone up prominently along Orchard Boulevard and Paterson Road. The site office has been constructed at the junction of Orchard Boulevard and Grange Road, opposite Scape.

Herrenknecht will be supplying a Slurry TBM under T219 for the dual drives to Orchard Boulevard station. This is an alteration to the initial proposal of an EPB machine, probably due to the mixed ground conditions along the tunnel route. CSM Bessac, a subsidiary of main contractor Bachy Soletanche will facilitate in operating the tunnelling works.

The Overseas Family School will operate its Paterson campus until the end of Q2 this year before moving to its new campus at Pasir Ris

Earthworks at T219 Orchard Station

Orchard Boulevard D-walls

The Orchard Boulevard station has commenced D-walling works. Hoardings have also gone up around the newly completed site office - which shares a common ground with the site itself resulting in an extremely small site area, offering little parking space and only allows for a one-way flow of traffic.

Barriers have been placed around the center median near Traders Hotel where preparatory works progresses for the subsequent felling and road diversion to construct Entrance B.

T218 Orchard Boulevard

Preparatory works along the center median

Piling at Napier (II)

Piling works continue at the T217 Napier site. The Gleneagles Pedestrian Overhead Bridge (POB) officially closed on Christmas Eve last year, and was successfully demolished on the morning of January 9. This is the second pedestrian overhead bridge to be demolished for the Thomson Line project. Concurrent with the former bridge's demolishment is the opening of the new temporary POB.

The site area will begin to change drastically in the coming few months. 5 stages of traffic diversions have been mapped out with the first realignment scheduled to be implemented around March or April.

Under T217, Yongnam will supply and facilitate shoring related works. In addition, Herrenknecht will be manufacturing a slurry TBM and STP for the dual tunnel drives to Orchard Boulevard station.

Dec 30 - Piling works towards the south

Dec 30 - Dismantling of Gleneagles POB

Dec 30 - Dismantling of Gleneagles POB

Stevens Diverts

One of our biggest highlights of this quarter's updates lies at the T216 project. An initial diversion has been implemented along the arterial Stevens Road last month, realigning both carriageways to the east. Utility diversions seem to be underway along the west side beneath the former road. With the complete demolishment of 2 Robin Close, piling works have commenced at Entrance B. Acoustic barriers have also been erected around the site area and with the innovativeness from the Korean contractor, the barriers exhibits a unique design replicating flora that were felled to blend in with the surroundings.

Kori have been subcontracted for the supply, fabrication, installation and dismantling of strutting and decking works for this contract. In addition, NFM Technologies will manufacture the 4 slurry Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) to be utilized in this contract. This would the first time NFM's machines are being used to bore Singapore's metro tunnels. D-walling works are also underway at the Dalvey Launch Shaft.

T216 Stevens Station

12m high acoustic barriers

D-walling works at the Dalvey LS. The double cell circular outline of the shaft's ERSS will be identical to T206's Launch Shaft 2

Piling at Mount Pleasant

KTC which was subcontracted for earthworks at the Mount Pleasant site has since moved out and its site office has been demolished. Piling works have commenced at both the north and south launch shafts, with a priority of the completion of the south shaft first - which will subsequently be handed over to Daewoo of the neighbouring contract T216.  The 3-storey site office for the LTA has been structurally completed south of the site and is in the process of being fitted out.

Under T215, Herrenknecht will be supplying a slurry TBM and STP for the tunnel drives from the north shaft to the TCS at Caldecott.

Fitting out of the T215 Site Office

Intensified piling works at the south launch shaft

Caldecott Piles & Excavates

Piling works continue around the station box, including Entrance B across the diverted Toa Payoh Rise. Towards the south, the north section of the Thomson Cripple Siding (TCS)'s ERSS have completed and excavation works commenced with the first layer of struts installed.

Excavation works on the station should commence from the 2nd quarter of this year.

Excavation of north section of TCS - which will link to the south section by mining beneath Toa Payoh West

Piling works commenced on Entrance B across Toa Payoh Rise

Upper Thomson D-walls & Piles

The station's ERSS will be constructed from north to south, with an implementation of a traffic diversion for each respective phase. The first traffic diversion has been scheduled within the next 2 months. King posts are being driven down along the former canal which will support the deck for the traffic diversion to come, while D-walling works have commenced at the entrance on the former site of the Thomson Post Office by Bachy Soletanche, subcontracted by Sato Kogyo.

Hirose has been subcontracted for shoring works under T212.

Upper Thomson Launch Shaft

As a kind gesture, the project team decided to install 12m high acoustic barriers at ULS for the Shunfu residents despite the site being a reasonable distance away from the blocks. Due to the obstruction of view, our updates will now be viewed upfront from the Lakeview side.

D-walling works at Entrance C - Bachy Soletanche Singapore

Driving of king posts into the former canal

Piling at Bright Hill

Contract T211 has one of the biggest scope of works within the Thomson Line project, having an extensive cut and cover and bored tunnelling works. Aside from constructing the Bright Hill station in an awkward angle beneath the narrow Sin Ming Avenue, both ends of the station will see 3 launch shafts integral within several sections of cut and cover tunnels that stretches the entire site area up to 400m. For ease of interpretation, we have included a diagram indicative of the underground structures that are to be constructed at the site.

Recalling our previous update, works on the temporary sports facility for Bishan Park Secondary School (BPSS) were underway while Penta Ocean was preparing to realign Sin Ming Avenue. The sports facility have since been opened in November and works are underway to demolish the old facility, which sits right above the station box. Sin Ming Avenue has also been realigned closer to the south.

Plan diagram of Bright Hill

Progress Update
As of present no works have started on the ERSS of the station. The site is currently segregated into 2 sections on either ends of the station, where piling works have begun on the cut and cover tunnels and launch shaft. A load test is also being carried out at the site of Entrance B. Based on the process of works being carried out, the north side of the station will be piled first. A subsequent road diversion towards the north should be expected within the next 6 months for the south face to be piled.

Piling works at the north cut and cover site using a Buma casing oscillator C2000G - Buma CE Co Ltd

Tunnelling
Together with T202 and the JIPCT cable tunnel project, Penta Ocean placed a bulk order of 8 slurry TBMs from Kawasaki. 4 of the machines will be supplied for the T211 project, of which twin machines will launch from Sin Ming to Mayflower and Upper Thomson respectively.

The tunnels to Mayflower (MFL) will make a left curvature beneath the Bishan-AMK park, AMK Avenue 3 and go beneath the foundations of block 258 before docking into MFL. Along this tunnel route, the timber piles of the POB at Mayflower Sec are obstructing both tunnels and will have to be extracted. The POB should be demolished within the next few months.

An aerial view of the tunnel route to MFL from the north launch shaft. The said POB to be demolished, as well as block 258 can be distinctively seen along avenue 3 in the left background. Behind which lies the Mayflower Station.

Hoarded up site by T211 along Avenue 4, taken from block 258

Where the twin tunnels will go beneath block 258, essential ground improvement and structure stabilization works will have to be carried out prior to the arrival of the TBMs. In preparations for this, Penta Ocean has recently created a site beside block 258 (picture shown above). Glass prisms and automatic total stations have also been installed by the monitoring contract along the exterior face of block 258 throughout the month of December. Tunnelling works along this stretch are targeted to complete by Q3 next year.