Civil Team 2 - Completion

This consolidated update showcases the completion of the 5 stations from Rochor to Botanic Gardens under the Downtown Line 2's civil team 2 project, excluding Tan Kah Kee Station.

Rochor Station

Entrance B

Newton - T.O.P

The first of 12 stations along the Downtown Line 2 passed the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) inspection this morning. Testing of the trains have recently commenced from the operational DTL1 to Botanic Gardens.

Downtown Line Entrance to the Newton station

Newton Clads

Cladding works to the entrance and cooling tower at the Newton station have completed. The mechanical and electrical fixtures are also about complete, and the ceiling lights of the entrance have been observed to be turned on during the day. The cooling tower has been painted with an orange strip near the roof to match the livery of the existing NSL station. In addition, the transition of doors to shutters was implemented at the NSL concourse as part of the A&A works to better improve commuter flow for the future transfer between the Downtown Line.

Photos in this update were collectively taken over February and March. With this post. the 1st Quarter updates for the Downtown Line 2 conclude.

March 16 - Completed Entrance with skylights covered

Downtown Line 2

As the Downtown Line 2 progresses closer to its completion, the public will begin to notice considerable amount of changes to the site landscape on the surface, with the introduction of aesthetics fittings and mechanical/electrical installations to the superstructures. A short consolidated update today tracks the progress of the DTL2 over the first few weeks of 2015, prior to the next quarterly-update which me and WK hope to commence right after CNY.

January 23 - Reinstatement at Newton with the newly opened bus bay

Newton - Preparations for Reinstatement

Newton progresses onward to become the first site to see a complete reinstatement. The steel truss frame of the entrance has been completely assembled and works have started on covering the roof. Closer to the circus, the cooling unit, as with many of the other DTL2 stations over the last 2 months, has been delivered and fitted into the cooling tower.

Reinstatement at Newton
The permanent bus stop at the station has taken shape as well, with the bus bay being cast at the moment. The steel structure of the bus shelter and safety bollards are completed and the bus stop is scheduled to open around CNY next year.

Reinstatement at City Towers
Down the road, the bus stop at the escape shaft site has been reinstated. Casting works of the bus bay had just completed and the bus stop should reopen back to its original location by New Year's Day.

DTL entrance of Newton Station

DTL entrance of Newton Station

Cooling unit fitted into the tower. The sides of the superstructure will progressively be covered up with grates

Permanent bus stop at the DTL entrance along Bukit Timah

Reinstatement of City Towers bus stop at the escape shaft

Bukit Timah Road Realigns

Many changes have taken place across the various DTL2 sites over the last couple of days. This dedicated post would consolidate all the new developments.

Newton
One of the most significant milestone in the project timeline, C920 has completed its last phase of traffic diversion at the Newton site - the first DTL2 project to have done so. The slip road has been reconstructed over the backfilled launch shaft ahead of the projected Q4 2014 timeframe indicated on the road signages. Having diverted back the road, land is freed up to construct up the remaining segments of the entrance. Steel frames for the future walkway ramp has begun to form.

Reinstated Bukit Timah Road. Do note that the bus stop location is temporary.

Here is the recently completed escape shaft at Ferrell Residences. The site is temporary hoarded up.

Escape Shaft

Stevens
C919 will be carrying out one final traffic diversion at Stevens. This is for the hacking of the d-wall located below the existing road. Unlike the initial diversion back in 2011, the presence of the station superstructure now imposes an incredible site constraint. The road has been positioned and surfaced right up to the edge of the structure. The diversion will be carried out this Thursday.

Diversion works

Managed to get a glimpse of the entrance escalators being lowered down prior to road diversion preps as I was walking by the week before. A rare sighting.

September 12

September 12 - Escalator segment going down the entrance

Tan Kah Kee
Following the achievement of BSC for the expo bound tunnel to BTN, the final standalone gantry crane for DTL2 has been dismantled at the TKK launch shaft. Backfilling of the shaft will begin at once.

More photos below.

Newton

Following the partial reinstatement of Bukit Timah Road in June, the remaining structure of the entrance and vent shaft have begun to form. The launch shaft have almost been completely backfilled and a future pavement can be seen forming. The full road reinstatement should take place by year end. The escape shaft at City Towers also has the POB landing reconstructed.

Newton station - Drawn by Seloloving, Skyscrapercity

A render of what the Newton station exit will look like, done by SAA Architects.

The structure of Entrance C taking shape 

S602 Breakthroughs, BP Bound Completes

Completion of all bored tunnels within DTL2

At last, the final TBM (S602) has docked into Sixth Avenue Station, concluding 36 months of tunnelling works for the entire Downtown Line 2 when S548 was first launched at Beauty World on 8 June 2011. McConnell Dowell, which coordinated this final TBM docking at Sixth Avenue, is the same contractor which facilitated the inaugural TBM launching at Beauty World 3 years ago. CP1&2 has been excavated and supported, while the last cross passage 3 is currently being mined.

We'd like to acknowledge Herrenknecht, Kawasaki and Hitachi Zosen, the manufacturers for the 19 TBMs along Stage 2. Herrenknecht AG has a renowned history in producing the quality S-number TBMs of various sizes and uses since 1975. The local demand for their machines have steadily grown over the years since the successful implementation of S134 and S135 between Farrer Park and Boon Keng stations along the North East Line. A further 9 machines were procured to construct the southern half of the bored tunnels for the Circle Line. 22 machines had been ordered throughout DTL2 and DTL3, and more will come with the increasing demand of upcoming metro lines.

Kawasaki from Japan delivered 5 machines that were ordered under GS and SK for Contract 913 and 915. Most of their machines used in Singapore are of the slurry type, with a few currently involved in the SP cable tunnel project. Hitachi Zosen supplied STEC 4 Earth Pressure Balance Machines under C920.

These sophisticated machinery would not have been able to operate without the hundreds of men working beneath the surface under immense pressure and poor ventilation. A very big thank you to the tunnelling team from all nationality.

Below is a flashback of the earlier few TBM launches along the stage.

Inaugural launch at Beauty World

Day 11, Newton

Newton is the second station to have the surface structures up. The vent shaft is structurally completed while the entrance frame would commence following the final road reinstatement of the slip road in June/July. Contract 920 consists of the construction of Newton station, Halifax substation and its adjacent 4 tunnels. 

The tunnels leading towards Stevens immediately go into a stacked formation due to space constraints along the road corridor. As part of safety precautions, mid tunnel escape shafts are built along stacked tunnels to facilitate as a vertical cross passages. The entire DTL2 will only feature one ES, which is being built under this contract. The surface of the shaft had begun reinforcing bars for the entrance since March. The exit is now concreted and structurally completed.

Power is essential in the future operations of the Downtown Line. There will be 3 intake points - Gali Batu Depot, Expo and the Halifax substation. The massive building has been completed in 2013 and is visible beside KK Hospital.

Halifax Substation in August 2013

Escape Shaft in front of Ferrell Residences

Mid 2011 - Newton Circus was diverted to construct the diaphragm wall beneath the road 

17 April 2014 - Preparing to repeat the same traffic diversion 3 years later

March Tunnel Progress

C937 - Breakthrough of TBM 2 at Chinatown on Mar 24

C917A

Closure of centre carriageway to conduct SI

C917A
S602 has resumed tunnelling though the battle against ground is not in their favour. Downstream along Maple Ave MacDow is conducting SI along lane 3 in anticipation of granite currently challenged by its sister TBM.

S603 at 710 rings (Mar 20, ~72% completed)
TBM has slowed down to 1 ring per day. It is crossing the 2nd diversion canal at the moment, concluding the end of the section weakened by granite. Cutterhead is being replaced every 3-4 days. This is alike the challenge faced by STEC's TBM1 near Stevens station last year. The tunnel route is expected to be trouble-free from here till breakthrough point at SAV, exception of another possible section of granite lying below the junction of Sixth Avenue.

C918A

S605 crossing the canal beneath the Farrer Flyover

C918A
S605 at 446 rings (Mar 19, ~66% completed)
TBM has paced down. Breakthrough together with S603 should only take place in May.

Remaining gantry crane standing on site

 STEC has decommission 2 of its gantry cranes at Newton the past week. The remaining one along the BP tunnel should be taken down by the end of March. Backfilling of the shafts are starting.

With thanks to Stefano for his contribution.

Stage 2 update January 2014

A month has passed since we entered into 2014 and this provides a good chance to look back at the progress over the stage 2 stations thus far. On the whole, the stations are progressing swiftly towards completion in 2016. It was reported in December that "Several stations have achieved basic structural completion for electrical and mechanical installation works to begin and this will be progressively achieved at all 12 stations by mid-2014". It is notable that most station structures are taking shape decently, with several showing signs of reaching the final levels where the entrances and exits pop up.

Descending into Newton

The final set of escalators were installed at the main entrance of Newton station on Monday. A significant milestone as part of the mechanical fittings, the station is one step closer to completion.

TBM4 (諸葛亮) breakthrough at Stevens

At last, STEC's completed its final tunnel drive to Stevens. TBM4 has driven the EP bound tunnel from Newton and arrived 2 weeks after the lower TBM. Likewise all accessories will be extracted and removed via the launch shaft. Works on the FSC shall commence next, after which track laying by Alstom can proceed upwards to BTN. I'm guessing the slip road on the surface will be reinstated by Q2 next year after the launch shaft has been completely backfilled.

TBM4's interface with Stevens station 

Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

Stevens and Newton

A&A works have commenced at the concourse of Newton station.

Sembawang is also dismantling the west gantry crane at Stevens after about 1.5 years of operation. The roof slab is completed and they're freeing up the site while they can. The east gantry crane will be dismantled in 2 months.

More Newton updates

Ventilation fans have been delivered to Newton station recently. Here are some photos of the lowering of the fans to the platform level inside the station.

DTL2 Tunnel Progress

November update, C921 S-608 has relaunched for the second drive to Bugis as mentioned by Jon in the previous post. C920 TBM1 broke through at Stevens yesterday after 22 months of tunnelling. TBM4 should follow up and reach Stevens next month.

TBM1 Breakthrough at Stevens

Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

Installation of escalators at Newton

Photo Credit - Khor Eng Leong (Project Director of C920)

Newton to BTN update

C920
Continuing from the previous post, the tunnels from Newton to Stevens are currently still being driven by the EPB TBMs. TBM1 (lower BP tunnel) is approximately 7 rings away from breakthrough when I last checked on Tuesday. The machine has spent its last 6 months repeatedly changing the cutterhead every 2-3 days, working out to cost around $2.0m each month - due to the harsh granite along the last 400m sector along the tunnel alignment which the machine wasn't designed to handle.

Nonetheless, breakthrough for TBM1 is anticipated to happen in 2 weeks time. The TBM will be dismantled in-situ and all equipments will be brought back to the launch shaft at Newton. The upper tunnel bored by TBM4 is unaffected by the granite below and is now positioned at Ring 959 before Whitley Flyover, waiting for the lower tunnel to complete before closing in.

Alstom will not be able to proceed with track laying further from Newton until STEC completes the First Stage Concreting (FSC) in the bored tunnels.


C919
Stevens station is still in the midst of concreting right now. Botanic Gardens is finishing up the roof slab and backfilling should commence by the end of the year, together with A&A works to the existing CCL.

Completed tunnel (BP bound) between Stevens and Botanic Gardens station

Track laying at Newton

Alstom is in charge of track works for stage 1 and stage 2 of the Downtown Line. They have completed their work on stage 1 and are now progressing on stage 2 at various locations. Temporary Staging Areas (TSAs) are located at Gali Batu, Little India and Beauty World. These are locations from which operations to supply tracks and sleepers will take place. Access to the tunnels through openings are available here. We stumbled upon several photos from Newton station showing track works that we'd like to share with you.

12 October 2013 - Expo bound trainway
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

15 October 2013 - Bukit Panjang bound trainway
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

15 October 2013 - Newton platform on Expo bound side
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

15 October 2013
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

15 October 2013
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

15 October 2013
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

25 October 2013 - Bukit Panjang bound trainway
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong

25 October 2013
Photo credit - Khor Eng Leong