SINGAPORE : Work along most parts of the MRT Circle Line is up
to speed, despite a number of delays in the wake of last year's
Nicoll Highway accident, the Land Transport Authority has
said.
For the first time, the media were taken six floors down into the
site to see a tunnel breakthrough along Stage 3 of the line.
It started with a low hum, and within minutes, the loud roaring of
the tunnel boring machine brought down an 80-cm thick retaining
wall, into the tunnel at Lorong Chuan Station.
While the tunnel boring machine has come through from Serangoon
Station to Lorong Chuan, over the next months, it will do the same
thing from the opposite direction -- from Bishan Station to Lorong
Chuan.
Concrete slabs will then be laid to create a tube system through
which trains will run.
A 5.7 kilometre line, the S$1.2 billion Stage 3 of the Circle Line
has five stations -- Bartley, Serangoon, Lorong Chuan, Bishan and
Marymount.
It will intersect with the North-South Line at Bishan and the
North-East Line at Serangoon.
And while there have been delays for the overall system, LTA says
it is catching up.
Said Land Transport Authority CEO Yam Ah Mee, "CCL3 is on schedule.
Parts of the other contract behind because of Nicoll Highway are
being brought back to schedule and we are working on this revised
schedule. Stages 4 and 5 the contracts are out and starting work
soon. With this, the Circle Line should be open by 2010."
But there are other delay-related issues LTA still has to handle,
among them claims by some contractors because of the delay.
Said Brigadier-General Yam, "The claims are being submitted. We are
looking at it closely and then discuss with contractors before
deciding what we will do."
In related Circle Line news, LTA says 70 percent of the owners at
Hock Kee House have accepted its upfront compensation.
Concerns among the owners are now focused on the valuation amount
of their properties, which will only be known in early September. -
CNA /ct
Because, contractor are now demanding compensation for delay