MND to release details on underground space masterplan
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SINGAPORE: In land-strapped Singapore, underground space has been named a strategic resource by the high-level Economic Strategies Committee.
A masterplan is in the works to map out possible uses and the Ministry of National Development said details will be released this year.
Underneath the bustling Chinatown lies a vast labyrinth of interconnected tunnels snaking across Singapore.
The Downtown railway line, which is being built entirely underground, is part of a decades-long push to go down under in search of space.
The result is a subterranean world teeming with activity.
At the basement level, there's a complex network of utility pipes, electrical grids and pedestrian linkways.
The Common Services Tunnel, which is located five to 10 metres deep, is a system of tunnels designed to house utility services in the Marina Bay area. Built in 2006, the facility allows for the maintenance and repair of utility, sewage and electrical pipes through specially-constructed access points, without having to disrupt traffic above ground.
And 15 to 20 metres deep are the MRT lines and the Marina Coastal Expressway.
Just below that, at the 20 metres to 60 metres level, the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System delivers waste water to an underground treatment plant in Changi.
Across at Jurong Island, the Jurong Rock Cavern is being built at about 150 metres below the island.
And somewhere in the deeper, darker depths, is the Ministry of Defence's ammunition facility located under Mandai quarry.
But not all of Singapore has rock that is solid enough for cavern developments.
Most of it is in the west and central parts of the island lying about 100 metres deep.
In the west, there is sedimentary rock while hard granite is found in the central Bukit Timah region.
Thus, the first step is to create a geology office to know where the good rock is located in Singapore.
The Singapore Geology Office, which is located within the Building and Construction Authority, was set up in April 2010. Its aim is to create a database of information on Singapore's geology, to facilitate future underground developments.
Most information on Singapore's geology derives from a national survey done in 1976 although the information was updated in 2009. Government agencies and developers looking to build underground either referred to these sources, or commissioned their own studies.
Building and Construction Authority's Geological Office assistant director, Kiefer Chiam, said: "The existing information is quite shallow because it's mainly targeted at infrastructure works like MRT, services or building basements. There isn't much information at deeper levels like 100 metres or more.
"In order to support the underground masterplan, we need to know where the good rocks are."
In the immediate term, the focus is on adding more basement-level services like shopping malls and linkways.
But as underground construction incurs huge costs, a masterplan is needed to coordinate future uses and integrate them with structures above ground.
Adele Tan, Deputy Director of Planning Policies at Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), said: "Those are things we have to sort out amongst the agencies. We work closely with each other on it. And where there are conflicts, we have to talk it through and see what are the most optimal alignment and the most cost-effective alignment.
"As we build more things underground, there will be more competing uses and more conflicts of space. Some of these uses that come later may find that they have to go even deeper to avoid some of the uses that are already there in the shallower surfaces."
The challenge of building undergound is not just a technical one. There is also the issue of land rights to consider. In cities like Helsinki for example, private ownership of subterranean land is limited to a certain depth. But in Singapore, the law gives private owners rights to the land stretching all the way down.
It is not a problem currently because the Rapid Transit Systems Act gives rail authorities the right to go through private land. But this may have to be reassessed along with other regulations such as safety codes and utility plans.
Ms Tan said URA is studying other cities for models it can adapt.
URA is also studying how other cities pay for underground developments. In Japan for instance, the government shares the cost with private developers. Unlike places like Hong Kong, Norway and Japan, Singapore's good rock is buried deep underground, and are much more expensive to access.
Ms Tan said: "As we have a better understanding of our space underground, we can then develop this underground space plan progressively. We can identify suitable uses to put underground and put them in the right places as well, so that we can save land."
Singapore's subterranean expansion is still in its early stages.
Urban planners are laying the ground for future development, a process that will take years.
And if they succeed, it will open up many more possibilities on how Singaporeans use the space above to live, work and play.
- CNA/fa -
one day, our buildings will so connected that each unit will only have 1 window.
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will the construction affect the mrt tunnels and tracks?
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Wah, the Economic Strategies Committee came up with the idea.
Something the Straits Times readers have given as suggestions in the newspapers forum, and I have also mentioned in post here.
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Govt studies possibility of underground science city
SINGAPORE: A study of an unprecedented scale is taking place beneath the Singapore Science Park, in the western part of the country. It is for a science complex, about 30 storeys below the surface at the 80 to 100 metre layer, to house research labs, offices and a data centre.
The area being studied lies between Science Parks 1 and 2, and the objective is to link the underground science city to facilities above. The feasibility study is expected to be completed by April 2012.
Developer JTC Corporation describes the project as an expensive experiment, but one that is perhaps inevitable, as land here becomes increasingly scarce.
David Tan, Assistant CEO of JTC Corporation, said: "By putting an underground science city between Science Parks 1 and 2, we could actually have two plots of land for development - one at the bottom, underground; the other one on top. The key is really to see how we can use a piece of land twice."
There are benefits to building underground. For instance, the stable climate allows for greater efficiency of facilities such as data centres. The enclosed environment also ensures a higher degree of safety for storing risky chemicals.
But such advantages come with a price. Mr Tan estimates that building underground will cost 50 per cent more than a similar facility above ground.
Lessons can be learnt from JTC Corporation's Jurong Rock Cavern, which is an underground oil bunker at Jurong Island. For instance, evacuation plans and ventilation points need to be mapped out in detail, as there are limited access points at such depths. There is also a smaller margin for error as space is constrained by the availability of solid rock.
Construction challenges are also more complex. When building underground, the size and the shape of the cavern are dependent on site conditions and the quality of rock, which may cause some inflexibility in the size of the facilities created within the space. For the Jurong Rock Caverns, each cavern is about 20 metres wide and 25 metres high.
In addition, engineers have to work around the problem of fault lines, and water seeping into the caverns.
Associate Professor (adjunct) Zhou Yingxin, from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, is a mining engineer who has worked on the Jurong Rock Cavern as well as the Defence Ministry's ammunition bunker.
He said: "The risks associated with underground construction is not so much that we don't know what to do with the problem, it's that very often we don't know what to expect."
"You have to build with the ground that's there, whether it's good rock or bad rock. Of course you can try to choose a good site. But even a good site, you wouldn't know the rock until you see it.
"So you must have a plan to deal with such uncertainties... That's why you must have very experienced people on site. When they see it, they know what's going to happen, and they know what to do."
While most people are used to going underground to get to carparks and shopping malls, there are various issues that architects and engineers have to consider to make underground developments truly liveable. For example, the kind of anxieties people might have with spending so many hours deep underground.
Natural light, greenery and fresh air are some of the things that make cities liveable, and will be as important in an underground space.
Andres Sevtsuki, Associate Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, said: "We're biological creatures. We like sunlight, we like environments, we like trees and nature, and we like seeing other people.
"When we build cities, when we build urban environments, I think we usually think beyond necessity, we think of ideal environments, because this is where we spend our lives."
Creating underground cities is still, in many ways, a theoretical fancy. But over the years, authorities have built increasingly taller buildings and added over a fifth of the country's land mass through reclamation alone. Going underground is simply the next frontier, in Singapore's never-ending search for space.
-CNA/ac -
It's these kinds of reports that make you worry whether they are aiming for 10 million population or not.
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next time u ask a fwen where he live.
he will say plot no. 21 Jalan Cheebong, B12-40
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Originally posted by FireIce:
next time u ask a fwen where he live.
he will say plot no. 21 Jalan Cheebong, B12-40
These are the stuff sci-fi horror stories are made from.
Living underground for long periods of time.
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always the same old shit about this country being land-strapped.
land-strapped yet can afford to bring in millions of foreigners.
just another excuse to make properties more pricey.
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sg is a very small island. in that case, may as well merge sentosa and ubin via land reclamation instead.
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Whats next?
Underwater city?
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
Whats next?
Underwater city?
Sg aims to be a hub of everything.
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I really hope my nonsensical 10 million population idea remains a nonsensical idea.
Or maybe not.
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Originally posted by mancha:
Wah, the Economic Strategies Committee came up with the idea.
Something the Straits Times readers have given as suggestions in the newspapers forum, and I have also mentioned in post here.
They have to see if the idea can make money first.
Like can charge erp? Coe? Road tax? Property tax? Living underground tax?
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the day will come where the poor live beneath the bowels of the earth and only the rich have access to the surface.
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could they have read the comic Nemesis the Warlock and used Termight as an example for building the next generation urban sprawl?
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Originally posted by GHoST_18:
the day will come where the poor live beneath the bowels of the earth and only the rich have access to the surface.
That's when i will say "everybody needs fresh air to live".
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Originally posted by charlize:
That's when i will say "everybody needs fresh air to live".
shhhh.. they'll start to tax fresh air!
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What if the ground give away and collaspe?
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We've been displaced by foreign talents, so much so that we have to seek refuge burrowing underground like rats.
This must be the grand master plan conceived by our great leader to increase the population to 10 million, so that we can increase our GDP.
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Originally posted by Summer hill:
What if the ground give away and collaspe?
Then you can save on the grave plot, ultimately everybody dies, it's only a matter of time.
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In the future, there won't be just one North-South Line and East-West MRT line, there will be another deeper MRT line, to complement the one above it. So 2 lines ply each route.
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
Then you can save on the grave plot, ultimately everybody dies, it's only a matter of time.
if sg suddenly want underwater city or moon city...i packed my bags and run away
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
In the future, there won't be just one North-South Line and East-West MRT line, there will be another deeper MRT line, to complement the one above it. So 2 lines ply each route.
how deep are we going to dig?
to the core of the earth?
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
In the future, there won't be just one North-South Line and East-West MRT line, there will be another deeper MRT line, to complement the one above it. So 2 lines ply each route.
All the bus and mrt fans will start drooling over this if it happens.
The up line /downline.
Machiam like mlm.