Thomson-East Coast Line to have additional Founders’ Memorial stop
The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will have an additional stop between the Tanjong Rhu and Gardens by the Bay stations.
The Founders' Memorial station will be named after and situated next to a 5ha memorial being built to showcase the contributions of modern Singapore's founders. Both are scheduled to open in 2025.
Engineering provisions for an MRT station have already been put in place - in anticipation of future developments in the area - but the station was not announced earlier because plans for the memorial were confirmed only in 2017.
$242.4 MILLION CONTRACT
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said yesterday that China Railway First Group has been awarded a $242.4 million contract to build the station, and construction work will start later this year.
While the Marina stretch of the Thomson-East Coast Line will open in 2021, the Founder's Memorial station will open four years later, "in tandem with the opening of Founder's Memorial", the LTA said.
It was reported last year that the memorial site will be housed in a garden, within which an indoor gallery will be built.
Separately, the LTA announced a breakthrough with the Katong Park station on the TEL, which brings this stage of the TEL to around 40 per cent completion.
Because of the narrow site constraints - a two-lane road measuring 6m wide flanked by high-rises and at least one pre-war house - Katong Park will have a stacked station platform configuration.
That is, it will have one platform built on top of another, as opposed to them being parallel to each other.
While stacked station platforms and tunnels are uncommon but not unique to Katong Park, the LTA said it was the first time that tunnel-boring machines were used to construct them through a station.
Yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary took to the wheel of an excavator equipped with a jackhammer to break through a tunnel segment where the upper station platform will be built.
Dr Janil later posted on Facebook about the new Founders' Memorial station, saying "the new station offers another travel option for visitors to this landmark that honours Singapore's founding generation of leaders".
The first stage of the TEL - a three-station stretch from Woodlands South to Woodlands North - will open this year.
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