Who's idea was it for the second link anyway.. I read somewhere
they are considering a third bridge connecting Changi to East JB.
Now that woulda be a better idea in the first place eh ?
Straits of Johor too shallow and narrow ? Really ? Wow... what's
the purpose of a "bucket dredge" ?
And I'v always thought they want something like the Panama Canal
or Suez Canal .. man was I wrong.. :P
But to have a bridge with such height ...wouldn't the "approach"
take up lotsa land to avoid a steep incline ?
Doesn't make much sense... if we hata perhaps have a S shaped
bridge to make it work ?
Dang it.. I'd stick to our trusty Causeway and dig a hole
underneath it for the water to flow through.
The Second Link at Tuas was an entirely Malaysian idea - like the
Third Link that they are proposing to connect Singapore's Changi
area to the South-eastern area of Johor that will provide direct
access to the very undeveloped areas of Desaru to Mersing, and the
entire East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
If you noticed, almost 90% of the Second Link falls on the
Malaysian side, and only 10% of the Second Link bridge is on the
Singapore side, and paid for and built by Singapore
Contractors.
Do you know the length of the entire Straits of Johor that will
need to be dredged ?
Do you know how slow a process a "bucket dredge" operate and the
cost of continuously dredging the sea bed that keeps getting silted
by the many large rivers that flow into the Straits of Johor ?
How many "bucket dredge" do you think will be needed to keep the
newly cleared depths of the sea channels from being
filled up again - especially when after moving to a new area, then
the old area needs to be attended to again ?
The Suez Canal or the Panama Canal is a concrete water way that
are operated by compartmentalised flood gates, operated in tiers to
bring the vessel across a narrow isthmus.
The Thais had wanted to build such a canal across the Isthmus of
Kra in Southern Thailand, and which they believe will be a very
attractive proposition to the VLCC that travels from the Bay of
Bengal to the South China Sea, and avoid the narrow Straits of
Malacca.
This plan has been mooted since the mid-1980s, and this time
they have been able to mobilised the financial support, but the
engineering works have yet to be started, while the security
situation in Southern Thailand remains hot.
The bridge that the Malaysian are proposing to replace the
Causeway is supposed to be a suspended bridge, and to allow for
ships to sail below - this suspension bridge will necessarily be
sufficient high for safety and to be of practical use.
You are right that to mention that the approach roads leading to
a bridge of such height will need to have some space to avoid a
steep incline.
The approach for vehicular traffic has been catered via the
newly opened Johor ICQ facilities that had the motorways all built
and truncated due to the aborted bridge.
However, the paradox in the Malaysian position is that even
as much as they wanted the Singapore Government to
co-operate with their idea in replacing the
Causeway with a suspended bridge - the Malaysian Government will
also insist on having the little used Malayan Railway to
continue its run deep into the heart of Singapore City and
terminate at Tanjong Pagar Station.
The Malaysian Government will even accomodate this uneconomic
insistence to continue with the unprofitable operation of
the Malayan Railway into Singapore - even to the extent of
relocating the entire Railway Station to a new location further
inland, so as to allow the train to have a manageable incline up
the suspended bridge.
The new location of the new Railway Station will be a
few kilometers into the rural area - from its present
location that is located within Johor Bahru city
and immediately next to the Causeway.
All these uneconomic decisions show clearly that the Malaysian
Government had insisted on their position based on
purely political reaons - more then economics or even
for financial reasons.
This is due to the Malaysian Government being faced with a
"Catch-22 situation" in that if the Malaysian Government
should terminate the rail service into Singapore,
it will allow the Singapore Government to exercise a clause in
the Colonial Agreement - which clearly state that when
the railway service to Singapore is terminated, all the
land - on which the rail run and where the train station is sited -
will fall into dis-use, all the dis-use land will have to be
returned to the Singapore Authorities.
To sweeten the deal, the Singapore Government had offered to the
Malaysian Government a new site for Train Station to
be located at the Woodlands ICQ, and which will serve
as the natural and logical terminating and starting point
of service.
The proposal was further enhanced when an offer was also given
to the Malaysian Government for a plot of land be given in
exchange for the total value of the land which is
occupied by the Train Station and the land space on which the
railway line is built on. This plot of land is to be located in the
heart of the new Marina Financial Centre on the reclaimed land next
to Clifford Pier and Shenton Way.
The package was given an added boost with the Singapore
Government offering to develop this piece of land jointly with the
Malaysian Government.
At the end of it all - this entire sordid affair is all about
politics and the bad blood between ex-PM MM and the original MM in
Singapore.
