Singapore goes underground

SINGAPORE (Dec 25): Singapore is preparing to unveil an Underground Master Plan in 2019.

With a population of 5.6 million people, estimated to grow to 6.9 million by 2030 – the island nation will soon be out of space.

The practice of reclaiming land is increasingly unsustainable due to rising sea levels and other impacts of climate change.

A report by Reuters tells how Singapore, has already moved some infrastructure and utilities underground. These include train lines, retail, pedestrian walkways, a five-lane highway, air-conditioning cooling pipes, fuel storage and ammunition storage.

But the plan is to go even further.

“Given Singapore’s limited land, we need to make better use of our surface land and systematically consider how to tap our underground space for future needs,” Ler Seng Ann was quoted as saying by the news agency. Ler is a group director at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

“Currently, our focus is on using underground space for utility, transport, storage and industrial facilities to free up surface land for housing, offices, community uses and greenery to enhance liveability.”

The Underground Master Plan will feature pilot areas with ideas including data centres, utility plants, bus depots, a deep tunnel sewerage system, warehousing and water reservoirs. There are no plans to move homes or offices below ground.

At present, only a handful of cities are mapping their subterranean space, according to Peter Stones, a senior engineer with the consultancy Arup. The consultancy did a study for URA comparing its use of underground space to other cities.

“Globally, underground spaces are still back of mind; it’s a Wild West of development, with a first-come, first-served system.

“Singapore wants to look at it holistically and have a master plan so it can plan and manage the use of its underground space, and avoid potential conflicts,” he was quoted as saying.

The study by Arup found that Singapore was behind Hong Kong and Tokyo in underground road density as of 2014.

The growing dearth of space aside, the weather is driving Singapore to tap the potential of the underground.

“You have rising heat and humidity and increasingly heavy rainfall. People want to avoid that.

“Plus, utility networks are subject to more wear and tear in these conditions, so placing them underground is a viable option,” said Stones.
However, underground construction can be significantly more complex, and more expensive, so Singapore will only do so “where it is meaningful and practical”, URA’s Ler said.

“Our underground MRT (mass rapid transit) network and expressways in the city area are some examples where the benefits of going underground outweigh the higher construction cost and technical challenges.”

To illustrate, the storing of fuel underground has freed up over 60ha, equivalent to 84 football fields of space. Reservoirs currently occupy approximately 5% of Singapore’s land.

Reuters cites United Nations estimates, which says that over 70% of the population of the world will live in cities by 2050. The strain on infrastructure and resources will be immense.

3D technology is used for the Underground Master Plan, for visualisation of space that cannot be seen. It is part of the ”Virtual Singapore” plan, which is a 3D model that will be fed by big data, and could assist in everything from urban planning to disaster mitigation.