BT : $20m for upgrading Bukit Timah diversion canal: PUB

Business Times - 25 Nov 2009


$20m for upgrading Bukit Timah diversion canal: PUB

By FELDA CHAY

ABOUT $20 million will be spent on the first stage of widening and deepening the Bukit Timah diversion canal to prevent a repeat of last Thursday's floods, national water agency PUB said yesterday.

Upgrading works on the stretch of the canal running from Wilby Road to the junction of Sixth Avenue will start in the third quarter of next year and will be completed in two years.

PUB will also install a water level sensor next week to give early warning of rising water levels in the Bukit Timah Canal near Blackmore Drive, said the director of its catchment and waterways department Tan Nguan Sen. PUB will notify traffic police and nearby condominiums if the water rises 'above a certain level'.

A second phase of upgrading works is also on the cards to expand the remaining stretch of the canal. This phase is set to start in 2011. When completed, the width of the canal, now 11 metres on average, will be expanded to 26m. It will be able to hold about twice the amount of water it can carry now. The three kilometre canal, stretching from Sixth Avenue to Sungei Ulu Pandan, overflowed last Thursday. Floodwater was knee-high in some places, and underground carparks in three buildings were flooded.

PUB is also working with Holland-Bukit Timah GRC to encourage the management of condos such as Corona Ville, where the basement carpark was flooded, to build physical crests to prevent water flowing in.

Mr Tan said that the flooding was caused by 'heavy and intense' rainfall over the Bukit Timah area, with 110 millimetres of rain - equivalent to about 115 Olympic-size pools of water.

The canal was built in 1972 as part of the Bukit Timah Flood Alleviation Scheme - a government project to divert water away from Bukit Timah, a low-lying area with a history of flooding.

Upgrading the canal is part of long-term planning for the area and has been planned even before the recent flood, Mr Tan said. This is in anticipation of increased storm water run-off - caused by a drop in grass-covered areas as a result of new developments in the area over the next 10 to 15 years.

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