TAMPINES EXPRESSWAY (Measures to prevent congestion)

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TAMPINES EXPRESSWAY:

(Measures to prevent congestion): 6.

Miss Penny Low asked the Minister for Transport in view of the number of growing towns in the north and northeast parts of Singapore and peak hour congestions at entry and exit points of expressways, (a) what measures are in place to ensure that the Tampines Expressway (TPE) remains an efficient expressway; and (b) are there plans to prevent it from becoming another Central Expressway (CTE) in due course.

The Minister for Transport (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Sir, the Tampines Expressway or TPE serves the towns of Sengkang, Punggol, Pasir Ris and Tampines in the North-East corridor, linking these towns to major expressways, such as the Central Expressway and the East Coast Parkway.

LTA recently conducted a site survey at the TPE during the morning peak hours and found the traffic along the TPE generally smooth flowing, with average speeds above 60 kph. However, there was localised heavy traffic at a particular stretch of the east-bound TPE between Punggol exit near the Punggol West Flyover and Pasir Ris Drive 12 exit near the Api Api Flyover. During the morning peak hours, there is a high volume of traffic heading towards the industrial area via Pasir Ris Drive 12. To improve the traffic situation at this location, the LTA will be extending the deceleration lane to facilitate smoother filter movement into Pasir Ris Drive 12, thereby allowing through traffic along the TPE to move more quickly.

To cater to the needs of the growing towns of Punggol and Sengkang and the industrial estate in Pasir Ris, I am pleased to inform Members that LTA plans to

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widen the TPE between Punggol West Flyover and Pasir Ris Drive 12 over the next five years. The tender for this project is expected to be called by 2007.

Moreover, when the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway or KPE is fully operational in early 2008, the additional capacity provided will help to re-distribute traffic better and relieve the load on the TPE. However, I would like to remind Members that while the LTA will continue to enhance and optimise our road capacity, ultimately, there is a limit to what we can do, in view of our limited land resources. Hence, as our vehicular population grows, it will be all the more important to complement our road-building programme with judicious demand management policies, including controlling vehicle population growth and usage charging and, most important, shifting more commuters from private vehicles to public transport.

Miss Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Sir, the Minister said that that particular stretch of the TPE serves the Sengkang, Punggol and Pasir Ris residents. I think it actually serves more than just that, because it also serves the residents coming down from Yishun via the SLE, Sembawang and so on. All these are growing towns. My question is whether there are plans to cut additional exit points such that the flow would be a bit smoother from the towns into the expressway itself. In addition to that, why was also the current flyover at Jalan Kayu fully built when the population there is really a lot lower, compared with the eastern part of Punggol Road where the population build-up is?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, additional exits will be provided as and when the need arises. In fact, additional entrances into the TPE will also end up introducing more traffic into the TPE.

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As for the Jalan Kayu Flyover, I think that is all part of the expressway system that is being built and is meant to cater to current as well as future demands.

Assoc. Prof. Ong Soh Khim (Nominated Member): Sir, I would like to ask: in the design of the expressways in Singapore, are we having too many entry and exit points that we actually defeat the purpose of having these expressways? Are the entry and exit points too closely located, causing the frequent increasing and decreasing of speed, thus causing these localised jams at the entry and exit points?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, that is why I said that new exits or entrances would only be added if the need arises and after careful consideration, precisely because we cannot afford to have too many exits and entrances; otherwise we will end up causing a lot of vehicular shifting from lane to lane, thereby resulting in the slow-down of traffic.

In terms of whether the current exits and entrances are too close to each other, that is a problem of Singapore. We are a small island and, therefore, to ensure that the highways are properly utilised, we need to have enough exits and entrances from the built-up areas, especially the new towns. And because of the small size of Singapore, unfortunately, there is a certain distance that has to be observed. Nonetheless, LTA does take that into consideration when planning all these exits and entrances, and we try to space them as far apart as possible.

Mr Speaker: Miss Low, last question, before we exit from this Question.

Miss Penny Low: The Minister mentioned that there will be exits at strategic points. Would he consider

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strategic exit as that nearer to the town where the population centre is, which is next to Punggol East Road?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, I will ask LTA to take a look at it.