Since construction of a cross-border rail link began three years ago, an empty plot of land next to Woodlands North MRT station has been transformed into a sprawling construction site bustling with activity.
Measuring about 30ha, or the size of about 42 football fields, this is where 40,000 people are expected to pass through daily when the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link starts operations at the end of 2026.
More than a thousand workers have been employed to work on the Singapore end of the rail link, with this number expected to increase as construction intensifies.
Before actual construction work at the Woodlands North site began, hard granite in the area had to be blasted away using explosives, with precautions taken so that the demolition works would not affect operations on the adjacent Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL).
Sensors and other instruments are used to monitor vibration and structural tilt, to make sure that the TEL station does not move excessively due to the ongoing construction.
Once the hard rock was cleared, concrete piles were installed as deep as 50m into the ground to form the foundations of the RTS Link station in Woodlands North, as well as a three-storey Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine (CIQ) building that will also include two basement levels.
The total gross floor area of the station and CIQ building will be about 180,000 sq m, or about 10 times the size of a typical MRT station.
About 1,260 sq m, or 0.7 per cent of the total floor area, will be for commercial use.
The CIQ facilities of both Singapore and Malaysia will be co-located within the same building at Woodlands North, as will be the case at Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru.
This means passengers need to clear immigration only at their point of departure, instead of having to do it a second time when they arrive.
The ticketing concourse, the Singapore immigration hall and three passageways linking to the TEL will be located at Basement 1 of the Woodlands North CIQ building, with Malaysia’s immigration hall and the departure and arrival platforms of the RTS Link station at Basement 2.
An underground linkway at Basement 3 will connect the CIQ building to the RTS Link station, which is being built underground at a maximum depth of 28m.
Construction of the underground linkway has been completed, and the remaining works at the Woodlands North site are progressing well, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Jan 11.
Work on a 730m-long rail viaduct on the Singapore side of the RTS Link and the connecting tunnels being built underneath Admiralty Road West are progressing well too, LTA added.
In total, Singapore is constructing 12 piers for its section of the RTS Link viaduct - three on land and nine in the Strait of Johor. These piers support the viaduct. LTA said all three of Singapore’s land piers have been completed.
As for the nine marine piers, their foundations have been completed, but the actual piers themselves are still in varying stages of construction.
The foundation for Pier 48, the one farthest from Singapore and closest to the Malaysian side of the viaduct, was completed in March 2023.
Major milestone: Connecting Malaysia’s Pier 47 and Singapore’s Pier 48
A key milestone for the RTS Link project is the completion of a 17.1m-long concrete structure connecting the Singapore and Malaysian sections of the rail viaduct.
This was commemorated on Jan 11 in a ceremony attended by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Weighing about 340 tonnes, the connecting span was constructed on-site as a single piece of reinforced concrete between Singapore’s Pier 48 and Malaysia’s Pier 47 using temporary steel support structures that were erected at more than 26m above sea level.
Unlike Malaysia, which uses a temporary trestle bridge to access its viaduct piers, Singapore decided early on to use boats and barges instead.
While this has added a layer of logistical complexity to the construction work, the benefit is that vessels can move freely across this section of the Johor Strait through a temporary navigational channel.
LTA said workers are transported to Singapore’s nine marine piers using passenger boats.
Meanwhile, up to nine barges can be deployed, depending on the stage of construction, and they are used to transport trucks, construction equipment and materials such as steel rebars and the concrete segments that make up the viaduct.
Singapore’s construction progress: Tonnes of rock and earth removed
As at January, Singapore’s contractors have carried out more than 600 instances of rock blasting at the Woodlands North site, removing about 330,000 cubic m of hard rock.
This is roughly equivalent to 90 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
About 2 million cubic metres of earth have been removed from the site to date.
In all, more than 2,000 piles were installed for Singapore’s section of the RTS Link. At the peak of the piling works, 50 cranes and piling rigs were deployed. The contractors also had to work out 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the tight timeline.
Work started in October 2023 to lift and install concrete segments that will join up like Lego pieces to form the rail viaduct.
Each viaduct segment is custom-made at an 8,000 sq m precast yard nearby.
There will be a total of 207 such segments, each weighing as much as 180 tonnes. The smaller segments used on land are about 10m-wide and 4m-tall. The bigger segments used over water can be as tall as 8m.
Around half of the more than 200 segments needed for Singapore’s section of the viaduct have been fabricated.
The next major milestone will be when civil works are completed and the infrastructure is handed over to RTS Operations, a joint venture formed in 2020 between Singapore rail operator SMRT and Malaysian public transport firm Prasarana to run the RTS Link service.
Touted as a game changer by both the Singapore and Malaysia governments, the 4km RTS Link shuttle service will serve up to 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction at peak capacity, easing congestion on the Causeway.