Expressways of Singapore

The expressways of Singapore are special roads that allow motorists to travel quickly from one urban area to another. All of them are dual carriageways with grade-separated access. They usually have three to four lanes in each direction, although there are two-lane carriageways at many expressway - expressway intersections and five-lane carriageways in some places. There are ten expressways, including the new Marina Coastal Expressway. Studies about the feasibility of additional expressways are ongoing.

Construction on the first expressway, the Pan Island Expressway, started in 1966. Template:As of, there are 163 km of expressways in Singapore.

The Singaporean expressway networks are connected with Malaysian expressway networks via Ayer Rajah Expressway (connects with the Second Link Expressway in Malaysia) and Bukit Timah Expressway (connects with the Skudai Highway via Johor–Singapore Causeway).

As the name suggests, the speed limit is higher than on the average road. The expressway is fully enclosed, with no traffic lights along the way, and the connection points with other connecting roads are connected by intersections, layered roads, overpasses or branch roads, making it easy for vehicles to reach their destinations. All directional and driving directional signs on the highway are green backgrounds to distinguish them from the blue backgrounds of general roads. Since the rapid highway is designed for vehicles to drive at high speeds, in addition to traffic congestion caused by traffic accidents or road works, vehicles should not drive slowly to avoid obstructing traffic.

History

Chronology of major events

Date	Events	Remarks
1964	Construction of the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) begin
1966	First phase of the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) completed. Construction of the second phase of the PIE begin.	Whitley Road: Mount Pleasant Flyover - Thomson Flyover - Jalan Toa Payoh - Jalan Kolam Ayer - Paya Lebar Way
1970	Toa Payoh Flyover, Singapore's first flyover is opened to motorists	Length: 1.2 kilometres
1971	Construction of the East Coast Parkway (ECP) begin.
1974	First phase of the East Coast Parkway (ECP) completed.	Fort Road – Marine Parade
1975	Second phase of the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) completed.	Length: 42.8 kilometres Whitley Road (Mount Pleasant Flyover) - Jalan Anak Bukit
1976	Second phase of the East Coast Parkway (ECP) completed.	Marine Parade – Bedok South Road
1980	Third phase of the East Coast Parkway (ECP) completed.	Bedok South Road – Changi Airport
1980	Third phase of the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) completed.	Jalan Eunos - Changi Airport
18 April 1981	Opening of the Benjamin Sheares Bridge on the East Coast Parkway (ECP) and the completion of the ECP phase 4 from Fort Road to Keppel Road	ECP Length: 20 kilometres ECP phase 4: Fort Road - Keppel Road
1981	Fourth phase of the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) completed.	Jalan Anak Bukit - Jurong Road
July 1981	Construction of the Sembawang Expressway (renamed to Central Expressway) begin.
July 1981	Construction of the Central Expressway begin.
5 March 1983	Construction of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) begin.
31 August 1983	Opening of the Central Expressway (CTE) Phase 1	Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 - PIE
23 September 1983	Construction of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) begin.
18 May 1985	Opening of the Central Expressway (CTE) Phase 1	PIE - Thomson Road
1986	Opening of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE).	Length: 10 kilometres
1 July 1986	Construction of the Central Expressway (CTE) phase 2 including Kampong Java Tunnel and Chin Swee Tunnel
30 September 1987	Opening of the Tampines Expressway (TPE) phase 1.	PIE - Elias Road
1988	Opening of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE).	Length: 26.5 kilometres
2 June 1989	Opening of the Tampines Expressway (TPE) phase 1.	Elias Road - Old Tampines Road
17 June 1989	Opening of the Central Expressway (CTE) phase 1	Seletar – Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1
24 March 1990	Opening of the Seletar Expressway (SLE) phase 1.	Central Expressway – Upper Thomson Road
21 September 1991	Opening of the Central Expressway (CTE) phase 2 including Kampong Java Tunnel and Chin Swee Tunnel	Length: 15.8 kilometres
31 October 1991	Construction of the Kranji Expressway (KJE) begin.
5 December 1993	Opening of the Pan Island Expressway (PIE).	Jurong Road - Upper Jurong Road
1994	Opening of the Kranji Expressway (KJE).	Length: 8 kilometres
5 November 1995	Opening of the Seletar Expressway (SLE) phase 2.	Bukit Timah Expressway – Woodlands Avenue 2
3 September 1996	Opening of the Tampines Expressway (TPE) phase 2.	Old Tampines Road - SLE
22 February 1998	Opening of the Seletar Expressway (SLE) phase 2.	Length: 10.8 kilometres Woodlands Avenue 2 - Upper Thomson Road Mr John Chen Seow Phun, Minister of State for Communications
22 August 1998	Opening of the Tampines Expressway viaduct connecting PIE and TPE
September 1998	The Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) systems is implemented at all expressways.
2001	Construction of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway begins.
2004	The SOS telephones were removed on all expressways except for tunnels.
23 June 2007	Opening of the Tampines Service Road, currently part of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE)
28 October 2007	Opening of the Kallang–Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), the longest subterranean road tunnel in Southeast Asia	ECP - PIE
March 2008	Construction of the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) begins.
20 September 2008	Official opening of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE)	Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong PIE - TPE
29 December 2013	Opening of the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), Singapore's first undersea expressway.	Length: 5 kilometres

Expansion

The latest expressway completed is the Marina Coastal Expressway which runs for 5 km, 3.5 km of which are underground. Construction started in 2008 and ended in late 2013. It was opened to the public on 29 December 2013. Prior to construction of the Marina Coastal Expressway, the Kallang–Paya Lebar Expressway which runs for 12 km, 9 km of which are 10 m underground, was started in 2001 and a 3 km section linking the Pan Island Expressway and East Coast Parkway was opened in late 2007. The Kallang–Paya Lebar Expressway was completed on 20 September 2008.

On 27 July 2007, the Land Transport Authority announced that approval had been given for the construction of a new 5 km long Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) at a cost of $2.5 billion. The expressway, which includes Singapore's first undersea tunnel, links the East Coast Parkway and Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway to Marina South and Ayer Rajah Expressway and opened to traffic 29 December 2013.

Construction of the 11th expressway, the North–South Corridor, originally conceptualised as the North-South Expressway was announced on 30 January 2008. The new 21.5-kilometre expressway will cost about $7 to $8 billion when fully completed by 2023 and will connect the East Coast Parkway with the northern parts of Singapore. In 2016, the Land Transport Authority announced that the North–South Corridor will be Singapore’s first integrated transport corridor featuring continuous bus lanes and cycling trunk routes, rather than a normal expressway when originally conceptualised.

Planned expressways in Singapore

• M19: Ashford Tunnel Expressway, from Jalan Lapang to Tampines Avenue 4
• M20: Tampines West Expressway, from Tampines Avenue 1 to ECP

Features

There are no traffic lights on the expressways. At an interchange with another road, an expressway is connected to it via slip roads. This allows traffic to change routes without having to stop or slow down. The most common forms of highway-road or highway-highway intersections are single-point urban, diamond, and trumpet interchanges. Some of them use cloverleaf interchanges.

The road surface is asphalt, unlike normal roads which may have concrete surfaces. The lanes are separated with white dashed lines, while unbroken white lines are used to mark the edges of the median and shoulder. The shoulder is reserved for stops due to breakdowns and emergencies, and motorists are prohibited by law from travelling on it. Lanes are numbered from right to left, with lane 1 being the closest to the median. Crash barriers, cat's eyes and rumble strips are also used to ensure road safety.

There are signs marking the start and end of an expressway at its entry and exit points respectively. The Expressway Monitoring and Advisory System is used on all the expressways—cameras are used for live monitoring of expressway conditions, and LED signboards display information messages, such as warnings of any disruptions to the normal flow of traffic, as well as estimated travel times. The longest expressway, the Pan Island Expressway, is only Template:Convert long and therefore have no rest areas.

List of Asian Highway Networks:

• AH143 running from Tuas, via AYE, MCE, KPE all the way to Buangkok East Drive
• AH230 running from Woodlands, via BKE, PIE all the way to Tampines

Safety

The default speed limit and National Speed Limits on Singapore expressways is as follows -

• 80km/h - Parts of expressways
• 90km/h - Parts of expressways
• 100km/h - Ayer Rajah Expressway west of Jalan Boon Lay
• 110km/h - Kranji Expressway between PIE and Old Choa Chu Kang Road

Certain types of transport, such as pedestrians, bicycles, and learner drivers, are not allowed.

All expressways, as well as most of the main roads, are high-level multi-line divided lanes with hierarchical road intersections for a large number of vehicles to travel quickly. On three or more fast highways, all vehicles should drive on the left, and all medium-sized trucks, heavy goods vehicles and buses should not use the right line of the rapid highway (commonly known as the express line) except for the right exit. All vehicles must not make u-turns or reverse on the expressway.

Although the speed limit on the expressway is high, it should not be driven overdrive, and the Transport Department has installed speed-detection cameras on the expressway to deter speeding drivers, and the police will also investigate speeding driving on the expressway from time to time.

Some of the expressways are constrainted are Choa Chu Kang Toll Expressway, Bedok Toll Expressway and Ashford Tunnel of which it is a tunnelled expressway.

Subject to the fully enclosed design, no stops on the expressway should be set up, and if there is a bus stop, a section must be excluded from the expressway, such as the TPE (Punggol Road) Rest Area, together with AYE bus stops and PIE bus stops. In tunnel control areas, including tunnel pipes and toll plazas, regardless of the speed limit, they cannot be included in the scope of expressways. Some of the lower passages are classified as fast roads, but most of them are entrance and exit branches.

The Expressway has a side-by-road belt or a central divider (commonly known as a shoulder), and the roadside belt or central divider of the expressway is not allowed unless the traffic is diverted or the car breaks in the middle. The boundary between the roadside and the central divider, usually shown as a continuous white line.

Parking is prohibited on the expressway throughout the day and no parking is is permitted on any part of the Expressway unless the car breaks down or is in the event of an emergency. In the event of the above accident, the hazard warning light must be lit. If possible, get out of the lane and take a stop on the side of the road.

Semi-expressways

In Singapore, there are three semi-expressways: Nicoll Highway, the Outer Ring Road System (ORRS) and West Coast Highway. These semi-expressways are scaled down versions of expressways. Semi-expressways do not have a uniform speed limit through its entire length, and some sections still feature traffic light controlled junctions, such as the eastern section of the ORRS and the controlled roundabout along the West Coast Highway. Still, just like expressways, semi-expressways allow motorists to travel quickly from one urban area to another with the use of viaducts, flyovers and underpasses.

WILD Detection System

The WILD detection system is part of the KPE, Jurong Town Hall Road, Braddell and Lavender stations. Speed limits for WILD detection system being placed at KPE were kept to 70 km/h, but those without will be 80 km/h.

Bus Routes

With the opening of Singapore's first expressway in 1969, bus routes also began plying expressways in an effort to reduce travelling time. Limited stop services such as 107x as well as buses plying long expressway sectors such as 57 and 390 were introduced.

But since the 1990s, things were a bit different. It is not a regular bus that plies along the expressways or a bus that skips stops. So it is also called "Express".

For example, when service 390 from Changi Airport to Tomlinson Road was withdrawn, it was replaced by Peak Hour Express 16E, which ran the same route on the ECP as trunk 390! This was met with frustration as some commuters wrote into the press. With that, construction began for the new development known as Suntec City, and it was mitigated by changing the number from 16E to the 36.

Expressways

Ranking of the Length from Longest to Shortest

Rank Number	Expressway Name	Code	Opened	Length	Exit Terminus	Remarks
1st	Pan Island Expressway	M1	1966	42.8km	Changi Airport, ECP Tuas, AYE	Longest and Oldest Expressway in Singapore.
2nd	Ayer Rajah Expressway	M2	1988	26.5km	Keppel Tuas Checkpoint, Tuas Second Link	Disconnected from ECP from 29 December 2013.It is connected to MCE since 29 December 2013
3rd	North–South Corridor	M17	2023	21.5km	Admiralty Road West ECP, Republic Avenue and Nicoll Highway	Construction starting in 2017 after redesign. Completion by 2023. The NSC will be Singapore’s first integrated transport corridor featuring continuous bus lanes and cycling trunk routes.
4th	East Coast Parkway	M2	1974	20km	Changi Airport, PIE Marina Boulevard	No longer connected with the AYE from 29 December 2013 with the opening of MCE.Shortened to Rochor.The part between Benjamin Sheares Bridge and Central Blvd was downgraded to a four lane road while the sector between the Central Blvd and Prince Edward Road was removed to allow the expansion of the new downtown to take place.
5th	Central Expressway	M3	1989	15.8km	SLE AYE	This Expressway has two tunnels, Kampong Java Tunnel and Chin Swee Tunnel. Merges with SLE
6th	Tampines Expressway	M6	1989	14km	SLE, CTE PIE Upper Changi Road East
7th	Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway	M8	2008	12km	MCE, ECP TPE	The expressway is one of the longest tunnel in Singapore.
8th	Seletar Expressway	M6	1990	10.8km	BTE, Turf Club Ave CTE	Merge with CTE
9th	Bukit Timah Expressway	M10	1986	10km	PIE Woodlands Checkpoint, Johor–Singapore Causeway
10th	Kranji Expressway	M5	1994	8km	BKE PIE
11th	Marina Coastal Expressway	M12	2013	5km	AYE Tanjong Rhu, KPE	Singapore's First undersea expressway.

Diagram

File:Expressways and Semi-expressways of Singapore 2012.png

A map showing the expressways and semi-expressways of Singapore. The Marina Coastal Expressway was opened at the end of 2013, while the North-South Expressway is under planning.

See also

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• Land Transport Authority
• Ministry of Transport (Singapore)

References

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• http://www.lta.gov.sg
• http://www.kpeunderground.sg

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