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| Re-Opening Of Nicoll Highway |
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Nicoll Highway and Java Road will be re-opened to traffic today, Saturday, 4 December 2004, at 1.00pm. Motorists and other road users will now be able to use the three-kilometre highway to travel between the city and the eastern part of Singapore. They can also continue to use the road link which was created in April, to turn into Nicoll Highway from Republic Avenue and vice versa. A map of Nicoll Highway is attached in Annex A. Reinstatement of Public Bus Services Public bus services travelling on Nicoll Highway will be reinstated on Monday, 6 December 2004. These are SBS Transit bus services 10, 14, 16, 70, 196 and City Shuttle Service 608. On the same day, SBS Transit bus services 21, 26, 31, 62, 158, and SMRT Buses bus services 853, 961, 985 will also resume to ply Lorong 1 Geylang instead of making a loop along Kallang Road. ERP Operation The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries at Kallang Road and Nicoll Highway will be re-activated on Monday, 6 December 2004. The ERP rates applicable will be for the school holiday period, after which these will revert to the original rates before the closure of Nicoll Highway. The ERP rates for the gantry along East Coast Parkway (ECP) at Fort Road will also be reduced with the opening of Nicoll Highway. Details of ERP rates for the three gantries are found in Annex B. Reconstruction of Nicoll Highway Nicoll Highway, together with Merdeka Bridge, was constructed and opened on 17 August 1956. On 20 April 2004, a section of the temporary wall supporting the excavation site for the tunnels leading towards the Nicoll Highway MRT station along Circle Line Stage 1 (CCL1) collapsed. This resulted in soil subsidence at the immediate surrounding area, and damage to about a 100-metre section of Nicoll Highway adjacent to the Merdeka Bridge. Works to reconstruct the affected section of Nicoll Highway (which measured about 150 metres) began on 24 August 2004. Works were carried out by the main contractor for the CCL1 project, Nishimatsu-Lum Chang Joint Venture. The reconstructed section of Nicoll Highway closely follows the previous alignment of Nicoll Highway. To ensure that the new road is not affected by changes in soil conditions and future excavation work in the area, the road was constructed on bored piles. Update on the MRT Work Site At Nicoll Highway Backfilling of the affected area at the Nicoll Highway MRT worksite has been completed. The ground level has been restored to its original pre-excavation level. The design of the Circle Line tunnels at the Nicoll Highway site is currently being finalised. Details of the design and schedule of construction will be announced in due course.
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1 SBS Transit bus services 10, 14, 16, 70 and 196 will resume their original routes to ply along the stretch of Nicoll Highway between Stadium Road and Middle Road. These services will also call at the three pairs of bus stops along their original routes, near the National Stadium, Golden Mile Tower and Suntec Convention Centre. 2 SBS Transit bus services 21, 26, 31, 62 and 158 will resume their original routes to ply along Geylang Lorong 1 from Geylang Road and Mountbatten Road. Hence, these services will no longer call at bus stop outside Kallang MRT Station. 3 Fifty-six bored piles supporting this stretch of road were sunk about 50 metres into the ground. Bored piles are created by drilling a hole in the ground to a certain depth. A steel cage is then lowered into the borehole and concrete is cast to form the pile, and the road was formed by casting a 500mm concrete slab on top of the bored piles.
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