Tunnelling works for the third and final stage of the Singapore LTA’s Downtown Line (DTL3) officially start today at the site of the future Mattar station. At the ceremony this morning, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport, Mrs Josephine Teo, launched the first of two TBMs which will tunnel through a distance of about 1.4km to Geylang Bahru station.
Running almost parallel to the East West Line (EWL), the DTL3 will provide a convenient transport link for residents and commuters living and working along the line to the Central Business District, the Marina Bay area and the rest of the island.
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The tunnelling works along DTL3 will present a range of challenges as the alignment traverses through difficult ground conditions such as very soft ground and marine clay. To avoid tunnelling under buildings, the tunnels have been aligned to stack on top of each other at certain stretches. These tunnels will also run under the Kallang – Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and the Pelton canal in the direction of MacPherson station as well as under the Pan Island Expressway (PIE).
The entire tunnelling process along the 21km stretch of DTL3 is expected to take about 25 months with 29 TBMs being launched at different locations along the alignment. DTL3 is on track to be completed in 2017.
The Downtown Line (DTL) is being built in three stages – DTL1 is targeted for completion in 2013, DTL2 in 2015, and DTL3 in 2017.
There are 16 stations in DTL3, from Expo station in the east to Fort Canning station in the heart of town. DTL3 has three interchange stations – MacPherson, Tampines and Expo, allowing commuters to transfer to the East West Line and Circle Line.
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