It has been four years in the making,caused the felling of an 80-year-old tree and is probably not for those with acute acrophobia.
Welcome to the Lornie Viaduct,Singapore's newest elevated road which links Braddell Road and Lornie Road.
Rising over the existing MacRitchie flyover, it is also the highest viaduct here, reaching nearly 20m above ground almost eight storeys high at its crest.
Work on the $34 million project started in end-2004. With its opening today, motorists can now bypass another busy traffic interchange.
Senior Minister of State for Transport Lim Hwee Hua, who officiated at its opening ceremony yesterday,said:
"This much-awaited direct connection between Lornie and Braddell roads will allow motorists to bypass two traffic junctions,thereby reducing travel time by an estimated four minutes."
In fact, motorists can travel from Bartley Road to Queensway - a distance spanning some 17km - with only one interruption: traffic lights in Lornie Road, near the Singapore Island Country Club.
Mrs Lim described the opening of the viaduct as another step towards completing the $400 million
Outer Ring Road System (ORRS). The ORRS forms a circle along the outer areas of the city, and will eventually provide a non-stop link between Marine Parade and Queenstown.
Mrs Lim said: "These roads are extensively linked to expressways and other arterial roads, and provide motorists with routes to travel between the east and west of Singapore without the need to go through the city."
The Lornie Viaduct project actually involved building two viaducts.
One connects Braddell Road to a widened south-bound carriageway of the MacRitchie flyover. The other connects Lornie Road to Braddell Road.
It also involved cutting down a towering 80-year-old angsana tree in Braddell Road in July last year.
The Land Transport Authority(LTA) had originally wanted to spare the tree. But it decided to remove it when some motorists complained that the tight diversion around the tree had caused near accidents because drivers were not slowing down.
Meanwhile, work on Singapore's last uncompleted viaduct 'which joins Bartley to Tampines 'is progressing steadily.
The LTA said the long-delayed project will be completed by the end of next year.
The viaduct was supposed to have been up by 2006,but was delayed when its previous contractor, L&M Prestressing,could not finish the job because of financial woes.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 24,2008.
