SINGAPORE: PUB will be building 60km of new water pipeline to meet demand from new developments, and renewing another 75km of older water pipeline for network maintenance and improvement over the next two years.
Singapore’s national water agency announced the move on Wednesday (May 17) at a media briefing and site visits to the ongoing Murnane Pipeline Project as well as another pipeline project running from Punggol Way to Elias Road. These works are aimed at meeting future water demand in the city and eastern parts of Singapore.
To preserve landmarks of historical value, and due to the high degree of urban development and underground infrastructure in areas, significant parts of the two projects will need to be constructed using a pipe jacking method to tunnel under.
The 17m shaft at the jacking site at Tanglin Road, which will allow pipes to be lowered and inserted below power lines and drains. (Photo: Loke Kok Fai)
This involves driving through stretches of earth with a hydraulic pump and jacking machine while laying the pipeline in place behind. In the conventional open cut method, earth around the site is first excavated, before pipes are laid and the stretch re-buried.
Pipe jacking is about 25 per cent slower than the open cut method, and also costs about two-and-a-half times more. About 40 per cent of the 22-kilometre Murnane Pipeline Project will need to be done using this method, including a stretch under the Singapore River that goes as deep as 50 metres underground.
More than 80 per cent of the seven-kilometre Punggol Way to Elias Road project would also require this method, running under Punggol Field.
Masagos being briefed on works at the Tanglin Halt side. (Photo: Loke Kok Fai)
Speaking to reporters at a jacking site along Tanglin Halt on Wednesday, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said about 90 per cent of the roughly 200km of pipeline works that the PUB will oversee until 2030 would likely have to be constructed using the costlier pipe jacking method.
“It is within our budget, but we have to ensure that we have enough to recover from our operations to fund this project for the next 15 to 20 years,” said Mr Masagos.
