One-stop construction park to be built off Punggol

[oasis]

04 May 07 The Strait Times
by Karamjit Kaur
 
One-stop construction park to be built off Punggol 

A RECLAIMED island to the north-east of Singapore is being developed into a $30-million industrial park for construction-related activities.
Pulau Punggol Timor - about one-third the size of Sentosa - will be called the Construction Industry Park (CIP) and will be Singapore's first such purpose-built facility offshore.

The island, which is currently uninhabited, will be a future landing and stockpile site for sand and granite imports.

Companies supplying pre-mixed concrete and prefabricated components will also set up plants there. This will save time and money because raw materials will not need to be transported to different locations.

Currently, sand and granite brought into Singapore end up either at Tuas or Lorong Halus.

While there are concrete plants at Tuas, they are not located next to the landing point, a spokesman for the Building and Construction Industry (BCA), which is spearheading the project, told The Straits Times.

When the CIP is fully operational by end-2009, the facility at Lorong Halus will be shut down and the land redeveloped for other uses, she said.

For easy access to the new facility, the BCA is building a 6km-long road called the Western Road Link. The two-way road, with a single lane in each direction, will branch off from the junction of the Central Expressway and Tampines Expressway, near the Seletar Water Reclamation Plant.

From there, it will run next to the Seletar Country Club and past Seletar Airport before linking to Pulau Punggol Barat, another reclaimed island, and Punggol Timor.

A new bridge will also be built between Pulau Punggol Timor and Punggol Way.

When The Straits Times visited the area recently, road works were already in full swing just outside Seletar Country Club.

The 6km road link is expected to be ready by the end of next year and costs $50 million, bringing the total cost of the project to $80 million.

The BCA spokesman said the island had been identified as the most appropriate location for the construction park.

Mr Andrew Khng, a director at Tiong Seng Contractors, welcomed the development.

'Consolidation is always a good thing, and a one-stop centre will definitely add to convenience for the industry and construction companies,' he said.

Building the facility on an island and away from population centres also makes good sense, he said. The stretch of the Tampines Expressway near Lorong Halus can get very busy and 'unsightly', especially on hot days, when the whole area also becomes very dusty, he added.

The new, bigger facility will 'enhance the construction industry's overall resilience' by providing extra space to stockpile sand and granite, said the BCA spokesman.

This is important, especially if the industry is hit by supply disruptions, she said.

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I wonder if this would cause some inconveniences. I am thinking construction vehicles and trucks would drive past our homes...