First phase of Lornie Highway to open on Oct 28
Southbound section will facilitate traffic flow towards PIE & Adam, Farrer roads
After repeated delays, the first phase of the Lornie Highway - previously known as the Bukit Brown Road - will open on Oct 28.
The southbound section of the road, which runs parallel to Lornie Road, will facilitate traffic flow from Thomson towards the Pan-Island Expressway as well as Adam and Farrer roads.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said yesterday that an underpass near the entrance of the highway will allow motorists to access the residential area in Lornie Road.
A temporary road connection near Sime Road has been built to connect traffic from the existing southbound Lornie Road to southbound Lornie Highway.
"With the opening of southbound Lornie Highway, motorists heading towards the PIE, Adam Road and Farrer Road are advised to use the new Lornie Highway to reach their destinations," LTA said.
"The existing southbound four-lane Lornie Road will progressively be downgraded to two lanes from Oct 28."
Traffic on the MacRitchie Viaduct will flow directly onto the new road. Southbound motorists using the current Lornie Road will have to access it via surface roads.
The northbound Lornie Highway will be completed in phases.
When the stretch fully opens by the first quarter of next year, a new underpass at the Sime Road junction will remove the need for a signalised junction that is in operation there now.
ANTICIPATION
Motorist Aaron Hia, 33, said that he is "really looking forward" to the new road.
The product trainer at a motor company said he uses Lornie Road to get to work and often sees bottlenecks on the MacRitchie Viaduct (southbound) and Sime Road junction.
"In the morning, it is actually faster to avoid the viaduct, and use the surface road to get onto Lornie," he said.
LTA said bus services 52, 74, 93, 852 and 855, which currently ply Lornie Road towards Adam Road, will be adjusted to ply the new southbound Lornie Highway.
Services 157 and 165 will continue to ply Lornie Road.
Bus stops along southbound Lornie Road opposite the Singapore Island Country Club will also be relocated to the southbound Lornie Highway before Kheam Hock Road.
The Lornie Highway project had been delayed repeatedly. It was announced in 2011, and at first slated to be completed by mid-2016, and then by the end of last year, then in two phases from the third quarter this year.
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