Civil tenders for construction of Thomson Line to be called next month

by Hetty Musfirah

A day after announcing the alignment of the Thomson Line, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) says it will call for civil tenders as early as next month.

It says tenders for all three phases of the line, will be called concurrently.

And to minimise disruption, LTA will have mitigation measures, even as it deals with construction challenges.

The 30-kilometre Thomson Line with 22 stations, runs from Woodlands to Marina Bay.

The line which is fully underground, is set to open in three stages from 2019.

And construction will begin in the third quarter next year.

LTA says the rocky terrain along the north corridor will pose a challenge, with tunnelling taking a longer time.

And with a rail network that already spans across the island, some of the new stations like Stevens, Marina Bay and Outram Park will have to be built deeper than existing stations.

The line will also pass through heavily built-up areas, including the Orchard Road shopping belt, which will see two more stations come 2021.

The line's Orchard station will be just behind ION Orchard, and connected to the existing station.

According to Steven Goh, Executive Director of the Orchard Road Busines Association, the Orchard Boulevard station should make the Tanglin area more accessible:

"At the moment Tanglin zone is not really accessible by public transport except for the bus and with the new station coming on stream, I think it will help the accessibility of Tanglin zone and perhaps it will spark off new development thinking along the Tanglin zone stretch where there is a lot of development potential within the next 15 to 20 years."

Regarding concerns about the impact of construction, Mr Goh says a fair amount of inconveniences are unavoidable:

"With any major construction, we do expect a fair amount of inconveniences brought to the road traffic and I believe authorities would need to work together especially within the next five years, you are going to build an underground canal connected to this Stamford canal as a diversion canal to the Singapore river. So I think all this construction perhaps can be integrated together and minimise the inconveniences."

LTA says it will conduct an assessment of the impact of construction on existing traffic conditions.

It says lane replacements will be provided to maintain the existing road capacity.

"Business As Usual" and directional signs will also be put up to guide shoppers and pedestrians.