Ready for
road tolls?
Jul 03, 2006
The Straits Times
IT
is a matter of time before Singapore runs out of land for required
new roads to cope with the population increase, or available land
suitable for roads is deemed better used for other purposes. In
either case, road planners have two alternatives for solutions to
tomorrow's vehicular demands: go underground or higher above
ground. The latter option, in the form of multilevel viaducts made
famous by clover-leaf junctions seen in high-density cities,
requires pre-planning to take into account load and soil conditions
and the locations of traffic dispersal nodes. Stacking one or two
more tiers as an afterthought when road space is found to be
inadequate is apparently not recommended. But going straight for a
multi-tier system way ahead of projected demand risks the project
turning into an expensive indulgence. Underground then? Cost will
decide.
The new Transport Minister, Mr Raymond Lim, hinted at a conference
of construction engineers last week that underground road
infrastructure was an option the Government may have to consider.
It is necessary to bear in mind his motivator was not the question
of land availability, which he did not discuss, but the financing
of subterranean roads. As this is much costlier than building
surface roads, he mentioned private financing, as practised in some
countries, as a model. These are turnkey or 'bundled' projects
whereby a private concern designs, builds and operates roads. Users
pay toll to use the roads. Politically, these projects are often
troublesome because of the toll factor. Whether Mr Lim was priming
motorists here for the probability of toll roads in the near future
is moot. More relevant is the question of need: How many more years
before road capacity is saturated?
To judge from the absence of serious congestion, road space will be
adequate for some time. Motorists are already heavily taxed through
the loading charges on car ownership (various taxes, COE) and
electronic road pricing. The ERP method of sorting out road users
has been accepted but paying toll, which can be expected to be
higher, is something else. Conceptually, subterranean toll roads
can be built as optional routes for motorists who will pay
willingly for faster travel. But it will need a stout-of-heart
financier to take a gamble with turnkey projects when surface-road
traffic 'jams' here are nothing like the two-hour standstills
common in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
Asia1.com
