The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) is a 43km fully underground train line that brings faster access to the city, the Central Business District (CBD), and developments in the Marina Bay area for Singapore residents in the east and along the North-South Corridor. TEL is the sixth MRT line and is comprised of 32 stations and 8 interchange stations. When completed, it is expected to convenience the public about 1 million commuters.
AECOM was appointed to provide consultancy services delivering detailed design and construction supports for the Package C of the TSL. The project included a route length of 6km long bored tunnel and 5 underground stations including 2 interchanges station threading through high end residential area to Singapore main shopping belt at Orchard, starting from Stevens, through Orchard Boulevard, Orchard, Great World City and ending at Havelock station. Our multi-disciplinary team provided civil & structural, architectural, geotechnical, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sanitary services. We involved also the environmental impact assessment, traffic impact assessment, utilities diversions, reinstatement works, CSD/SEM production and construction support throughout the Contract. The appointment of Qualified Persons for Civil and Geotechnical engineering is under AECOM, whom are responsible for the Authorities’ and Agencies’ statutory compliance and submissions.
We encountered many challenges during the design and construction stage that included designing the underground stations in hard and soft compressible soil strata down to 40m deep in the vicinity of heavily build-up areas; shallow cover for bored tunnel under congested roads, viaducts and canals; tunnels constructed in between live tunnels with gap between tunnel extrados of 3m; Earth retaining systems not more than 3m from existing live tunnel, underpin & excavate below live tracks to provide a platform-to-platform link between the existing and new MRT station. Other underground works included pipe roofing, sinking shaft construction, and tunneling and underpinning below residential houses and a 9-storey high-rise building. Stations and tunnels under AECOM have been completed and was officially opened to public on 11 November 2022.