New U-turn before Newton Circus added to ease traffic at roundabout
SINGAPORE - A new U-turn in Dunearn Road near Newton Circus was opened on Sunday (Sept 12), allowing drivers to turn into Woodlands-bound Bukit Timah Road without having to use the congested roundabout. With this, all the enhancement works at Newton Circus, which began in 2017, have been completed. Another U-turn, on the other side of Newton Circus, which allows motorists to turn from Woodlands-bound Bukit Timah Road towards the city, opened in July. The authorities hope these will reduce the number of vehicles using the roundabout, which recorded an average of nine accidents a year between 2016 and 2018. Thousands of people should benefit from the completion of the project, which had been slightly delayed by Covid-19. Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Alvin Tan, who is the MP representing the area, said the new U-turn will help motorists and residents better navigate Newton Circus, which “can be a bit of a mess”. Parents dropping off their children in the schools nearby – such as Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and ACS (Barker Road) – will hopefully also find peak-hour traffic less daunting, he said. “The new U-turn should alleviate traffic even more than the prev...
Flash flood in Dunearn Road subsides, PUB warns of flood risks elsewhere
SINGAPORE - A flash flood on Tuesday (Aug 24) morning that caused roads to become impassable in Dunearn Road between Sime Darby Centre and Binjai Park subsided within 40 minutes, said national water agency PUB. But heavy rain is posing a flash flood risk to other areas, including Upper Bukit Timah Road from Hazel Park Terrace to Chestnut Drive, the junction between Woodlands Road and Kranji Expressway, as well as in Sunset Drive and Sunset Way. People should avoid these areas for now, said PUB in a Facebook post. “Due to heavy rain, water levels in drains and canals have reached 90 per cent in these areas,” it added. As for the flash flood in Dunearn Road, PUB said roads became impassable at 10.08am. Its officers were deployed to render assistance. Water levels subsided at about 10.50am. The flood affected bus operations along Dunearn Road for about an hour, including services 74, 151, 154, 157, 170, 174 and 852, according to SBS Transit in a Twitter post. This is the second time this year that a flash flood has occurred in Dunearn Road near Sime Darby Centre. On April 17, heavy rain caused a similar incident. The incidents there come amid ongoing works to widen and deepen the Buki...
New initiative to get residents to pick up after their dog
SINGAPORE - There have been calls over the years for harsher penalties for dog owners and walkers who fail to pick up after their dogs in public spaces. Such behaviour can also cause friction among neighbours. To encourage dog owners to clean up their act in Bukit Timah, where up to a third of the households are dog owners, a group of young people launched the PAWsitive Norms campaign last Saturday (April 10). They aim to get dog owners to abide by what they describe as previously unwritten social norms - namely keeping dogs leashed on walks, cleaning up any dog waste and throwing it away in designated bins. "For a lot of us in the area, this issue (of dog waste littering) is a longstanding one so we decided to take it into our own hands," said Mr Tatum Khoo, chairman of the Bukit Timah Youth Network behind the campaign. The 24-year-old public servant said the idea had been in the works for a while, but was firmed up at the end of last year. For a start, the campaign has invited people to make virtual pledges to express their support for the guidelines. The campaign has started in the Mayfair Park Estate in Upper Bukit Timah, and organisers hope to take it throughout the estate and...
Restoring conserved truss bridges along Singapore’s rail corridor to their former glory
SINGAPORE - Since its reopening late last year after about two years of restoration work, the Bukit Timah Truss Bridge along the Rail Corridor has become a popular photo stop for hikers and cyclists alike. Another truss bridge, the Upper Bukit Timah Truss Bridge, was officially reopened on Monday (March 22). While the industrial beauty of both rustic bridges is immediately apparent, the painstaking effort made to restore them to their former glory will likely go unnoticed by most people who walk or cycle along them today. That few realise restoration works have been done is a testament to a job done well, said Mr Teo Chong Yean, a director at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) who was involved in enhancement works along the Rail Corridor. He said the team was meticulous in its efforts to restore the two 1932 bridges, which are located next to The Rail Mall and at the western end of Dunearn Road and Bukit Timah Road. For instance, they ensured that each sleeper, clip and spike of train tracks was put back in its exact position on the bridges after being removed for drainage works. To achieve such precision, laser scanning technology was used to map the position of each of these...
New bus terminal for Bukit Panjang opens on Jan 23
SINGAPORE - A new bus terminal for Bukit Panjang will open from Jan 23, according to a Facebook post by the Land Transport Authority on Monday (Jan 4). The Gali Batu Bus Terminal, located in Woodlands Road, replaces the Bukit Panjang Temporary Bus Park. With the opening of the new terminal, services 75 and 184 will be extended to serve more commuters, with two more pairs of bus stops along Woodlands Road. Service 974 will loop at Bukit Panjang town centre and skip a bus stop along Upper Bukit Timah Road. The bus stop outside Bukit Panjang station Exit A will allow for both boarding and alighting instead. The bus terminal is built on the rooftop of the Gali Batu MRT depot.