Sep 15, 2007
CONSTRUCTION WORK ON SCHEDULE, BUT...
Circle Line will exceed $6.7b budget
By Christopher Tan
CONSTRUCTION work on the Circle Line MRT is on schedule, but it
will cost more than the original $6.7 billion budgeted.
Inflation, more expensive concrete and more stringent design and
engineering standards following the 2004 collapse at the Nicoll
Highway station have pushed costs up.
Giving a progress report yesterday, Land Transport Authority deputy
chief executive Lim Bok Ngam said part of the 33.5-km line should
be ready by 2010, with the rest of it completed by '2011 or
2012'.
The new timeline takes into account delays after the 2004 collapse.
Before the accident, which killed four workers, the first phase of
the line was to have been completed by 2006, and the second phase
by 2010.
Yesterday, Mr Lim said: 'In all mega projects, there will be some
areas of works that are ahead of schedule and some slightly behind.
For the Circle Line, we are satisfied that the overall progress is
on track for completion from 2010.'
About 65 per cent of the line has been completed.
The structures of 14 of the 29 stations are done, and by next year,
LTA expects all tunnelling work to be finished.
The Circle Line, which is expected to carry 400,000 to 500,000
commuters daily around the city centre, may yet open in
stages.
The LTA said that a stretch measuring about 8km - with seven
stations between MacPherson and Marymount - was in advanced stages
of completion.
In fact, architectural, electrical and mechanical works are being
carried out now, and are expected to be completed by
mid-2008.
The Straits Times understands that as the train depot is along the
stretch, it is feasible to open it as early as the first half of
2010.
But Mr Lim would not commit to this.
'It's not just the construction. Testing and commissioning of the
system can be quite complicated,' he said.
Mr Lim said a new contractor will soon be picked to finish the
MacPherson and Tai Seng stations - where construction stalled last
year when Sweden's NCC stopped work because of the sharp rise in
concrete prices.
Mr Lim said another episode such as this was unlikely, saying 'the
NCC case was an exceptional case'.
Industry players said NCC, a relative newcomer to LTA work, may be
the first casualty of cost overruns which have hit Circle Line
projects since the 2004 collapse.
The Nicoll Highway station has been re-designed. It is now
one-third smaller, but costs 10 per cent more to build.
Higher engineering standards - which have pushed up costs - were
evident at other stations along the line.
For instance, the Farrer Road Station under construction now has
retaining walls that are 1.2m thick - 50 per cent thicker than the
collapsed walls of the Nicoll Highway station.
The higher standards affect the western half of the Circle Line
more, as construction there started well after 2004.
Mr Lim said the eventual cost 'has not been worked out', but the
higher cost of sand and granite would only add 'a single-digit'
percentage increase to the project.
He said the LTA will compensate the contractors 75 per cent of the
rise in sand and aggregate cost.
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