The Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) is the latest stretch of main road to open in Singapore and runs between the Tampines Expressway (TPE) and the East Coast Parkway (ECP). It is 12km long, and 9km of that is in a tunnel, making it the longest underground road in South-east Asia.
Motorists have to turn their lights on as they drive along it, and keep their radios turned on in case there is a safety warning. All this is done to keep people safe, because it is much harder to rescue someone from a tunnel than from an ordinary road, in case things go wrong.
WHO USES IT?
The new KPE serves estates in the north-east, such as Hougang, Punggol and Sengkang. It has been designed to handle 6,000 cars an hour on each carriageway ? that is 6,000 going north and 6,000 going south. For the morning rush hour on its first day, it handled 5,100 cars going into the city, and 2,300 heading in the opposite direction. That is just a small fraction of the 900,000 vehicles on the road today, whose numbers go up by 3 per cent every year.
WHEN DID IT OPEN?
It opened in the middle of last month, although a shorter 3km stretch between the Pan-Island Expressway and the ECP has been open since late last year.
But that stretch has seen its fair share of people speeding, and an average of 210 speedsters have been caught each week busting the 70kmh speed limit. Acting as the expressway?s ?eyes? is the KPE Operations Control Centre in Airport Road via 103 surveillance cameras.
If a vehicle breaks down, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will send a traffic marshal to the site and provide a free tow.
WHY DO WE NEED IT?
Until the opening of the KPE, the only expressway running from north to south was the Central Expressway (CTE), which has become infamous for its heavy traffic and frequent jams. As more estates are built in the north, there has been more traffic flowing from the north into the central area, and this new road will help. It is just one of several major roads being built, including the $2.5 billion Marina Coastal Expressway, which will link the new KPE to the ECP and the Ayer-Rajah Expressway by 2013, and the 21km-long, $8 billion North South Expressway which will be finished by 2020.
WHAT DID THE KPE COST?
Building roads underground is 10 times as expensive as putting them on the surface, and costs 30 times as much to maintain, so the KPE was expensive at $1.7 billion. It cost a lot because it was difficult to build the 35m-wide road, which goes through soft soil and under a canal and a river.
HOW DID THEY CELEBRATE THAT?
With a huge party ? underground. Some 15,000 people travelled through the unopened stretch of the KPE tunnel on foot in an event, called Swing KPE, organised by the LTA. They took part in either a competitive 10km race or a non-competitive 5km walk-and-run.
The lights in the tunnel were dimmed over a 1.6km stretch as 10,500 participants switched on red battery-operated lanterns to try to set a Guinness World Record for the largest lantern parade. And a convoy of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Lamborghini and Lotus sports cars, vintage cars and compressed natural gas taxis also gave rides to children from the Rainbow Centre, and Infant Jesus Homes and Children?s Centre.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 14, 2008.
