UNITEN ICE STUDENT CHAPTER

UNITEN ICE Student Chapter Singapore MRT Project Site Visit 2011 2nd August 2011 Report

On the 2nd of August 2011, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Student Chapter Malaysia organized a technical site visit to the Contract 913 (C913) Downtown Line Stage Two (DTL2) Project Singapore. The project site is located at Cashew, Singapore. A group of 8 committee members and students visited the project site.

After arriving at the entrance of the site office, we were welcomed by Mr. Vontivillu Jeevanbabu Balaji, a Geotechnical Engineer from Mott Macdonald Singapore Pte. Ltd. who helped the student chapter to organized the site visit in Singapore. We were brought in to the meeting room to meet the Tunnel Manager of the project, Mr. Colin Lawrenson and his team and they briefed us on the C913 DTL2 Project operations and maintenance. Throughout the presentation, we had learned more about the C913 DTL2 Project. DTL2 is the Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore, with the 16.6 km long, consist of 12 stations including 3 interchange stations, and is scheduled to be completed by 2015. C913 is for the Design and Construction of Cashew and Hillview stations and tunnels. It has been awarded to GS Engineering & Construction Corporation at approximately S$431 million. GS Engineering & Construction Corporation is a Korean company and currently undertaking Seoul Subway Line and Goyang Train Depot in Korea. Mott Macdonald is appointed as the Geotechnical Consultant of the project.

GS Engineering & Construction Corporation ordered two slurry shield machines from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. for the excavation of the tunnel. The slurry shield machines harness both the shield tunneling technology used in the excavation of soft ground as well as the tunnel boring machine (TBM) technology employed in carving out rock and gravel layers to burrow through mixed layers of rock and soil. For the soil profile, the area of the project is composes mainly of Singapore granite overlay by soft clay. The underlying layer of Singapore granite is quite even with occasional sudden depth. The Singapore granite is of Grade III strength and proves hardship for the TBM to core through with roughly 1-1.5m per day while tunneling work through the soft layer shows less difficulty with estimated 10-15m per day. Meanwhile, Mr. Colin explained the importance of risk management of the project. The risk management can be divided in to 3 parts which are ground & hydrology, operational and third party & infrastructure.

The visit got even more exciting when we were taken for a site walk at the construction area. Being able to see the tunneling construction from near was a breathtaking experience for everyone. We managed to see the mechanism of the

tunnel boring machine and how it works. A trip like this offered a truly valuable experience as students were exposed to more in-depth information on how to construct a tunnel and its importance for the future development. Overall, this technical site visit is a successful project by UNITEN ICE Student Chapter Malaysia. We would like to thank to Mr. Leslie Pakianathan, ICE Country Representative for Singapore; Mr. Vontivillu Jeevanbabu Balaji and his team from Mott Macdonald Singapore Pte. Ltd; and Mr. Colin Lawrenson and his team from GS Engineering & Construction Corporation for making this project a success!

Figure 1: Mr. Colin explained about the tunnel boring machine

Figure 2: Tunnel Boring Machine

Figure 3: Tunnel construction

Figure 4: Students discussed about the project with an engineer

Figure 5: Students at the site

Figure 6: Students at the site

Figure 7: Mr. Colin explained about the soil structure to the students

Figure 8: Group photo with Mr. Vontivillu Jeevanbabu Balaji and his team.