Residents of Maplewoods Condominium in Bukit Timah have signed a petition to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong regarding the inconveniences caused by the construction of the new Downtown Line.
The petition, which calls for the relocation of the King Albert Park station’s launch shaft, was signed by 65 percent of the 697 Maplewoods residents. The petitioners also requested for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to release the risk assessment survey for the King Albert Park station to the residents.
In a press conference held yesterday, Michael Morris, a Maplewoods resident, said that around “50,000 dump-truck trips will be needed to clear away all the tunnelling debris in the process of constructing the launch shaft.”
He expressed safety concerns attributed to vehicular traffic, should construction of the tunnel launch shaft continue.
While the Sixth Avenue station on the Downtown Line has no launch shaft construction site, Mr. Morris suggested that it be transferred there, as “there is far more land available around the Sixth Avenue station site for possibly situating the launch shaft site.”
To address the issues raised by the petitioners, the LTA and Alpine-Bau GmbH have held meetings with Maplewoods’ management council. In addition, Holland-Bukit Timah MP Christopher de Souza met the residents to understand their concerns in the last meeting, held on 7 June.
Following the meetings, both de Souza and the LTA proposed various solutions. However, all the proposed solutions were not accepted by the residents.
Tan Teng Muan, a Maplewoods resident, said, “The solutions offered so far are ‘band-aids’ to the real problem (of construction of the launch shaft at Maplewoods entrance and exit).”
The construction of the launch shaft at the Maplewoods site has been suspended until further notice.
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