ST : Four ERP gantries for Marina area

Jan 15, 2010
Four ERP gantries for Marina area
They form a cordon around the expanded Central Business District
By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

THOSE who drive or take a cab into the upcoming Marina Bay Sands integrated resort or the Marina Bay Financial Centre will be hearing the beep of electronic road pricing deductions.

Those hoping to get into the city without passing under existing Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries will not be spared either.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced yesterday that four ERP gantries will go up in Marina Centre, which will be part of an enlarged Central Business District (CBD).

One gantry will be at Marina Way, an exit road from the Ayer Rajah Expressway, and another will be at Marina Station Road, near the Marina Bay MRT station. The remaining two - one in each direction - will be on the new three-lane, dual-carriageway Bay Bridge which links the new business and entertainment hub to Temasek Avenue.

The one on Bay Bridge towards Temasek Avenue will be up and running by April, and the others will be in operation some time in the third quarter.

Their going 'live' is timed with the the developments in the area: The Marina Bay Sands resort is expected to open in April, and Phase 1 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre by the third quarter.

One existing gantry on Central Boulevard will be removed, so the net increase of three gantries will bring the number of operational gantries in the CBD to 39. Islandwide, there will then be 69 operational gantries.

LTA chief executive Yam Ah Mee said the new gantries in Marina are necessary because they form a cordon around the expanded CBD. Without them, motorists will be able to bypass congestion-priced roads to get into the city centre.

'Even motorists not going to the Marina area might use them, leading to worsening traffic conditions,' he added.

The new gantries will operate during the same hours as the others in the CBD, he said.

The LTA also announced a major new road that will serve Marina Centre. Called Bayfront Avenue, it will link the new Bay Bridge to Central Boulevard and skirt the facade of the Marina Bay Sands resort.

Mr Yam said the temporary roads now serving the massive construction site will stay.

Motorist Sally Chua, 35, who works in the Suntec area, said she doubts the new ERP gantries will make much of a difference to traffic volume in the area.

She said she already passes under three gantries to get to work, 'and traffic isn't all that smooth'.

'I doubt this will discourage people from driving into the CBD because the ones who do so are those who can afford to,' she added.

More than a dozen ERP gantries now straddle the underground Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), but only the one at the Fort Road exit towards the city is in operation.

Gantries had been planned for Commonwealth Avenue, Jalan Bukit Merah, Serangoon Road and Alexandra Road, but they were put on hold in late 2008. The LTA cited improved traffic flow as the reason.

Yesterday, Dr Chin Kian Keong, LTA's group director for Road Operations and Community Partnership, said the average speeds on those roads and on the KPE are within optimal levels, so motorists will not have to pay to use them for now.