Inside Singapore’s Longest Underground Walkway (With Malls!) | Singapore Hour

Key Concepts

• Underground Pedestrian Links (UPLs): Tunnels connecting MRT stations, malls, and offices for seamless pedestrian movement.
• 3D Mapping: Used for planning and identifying potential conflicts in underground spaces.
• Land Optimization: Utilizing underground spaces to maximize land use in land-scarce Singapore.
• Seamless Connectivity: Facilitating easy movement between high-density areas and transit nodes.
• User Experience: Designing UPLs to be enjoyable and comfortable, considering lighting, aesthetics, and ventilation.
• Daily Operations and Maintenance: Ensuring air quality, cleanliness, brightness, and temperature control in UPLs.
• Chilled Water Systems: Used for cooling and maintaining a constant temperature in UPLs.
• Curated Spaces: Differentiated and unique UPL designs to enhance the pedestrian experience.

Underground Pedestrian Links (UPLs) in Singapore

Evolution of UPLs

• Early Stages: Started as simple road underpasses for safe street crossings.
• 1990s Expansion: Extended into longer corridors connecting MRT stations to malls and offices.
• 2000: CityLink Mall: Singapore's first underground shopping street, linking City Hall MRT to Suntec City.
• Continuous Growth: The network has expanded significantly since then.

Planning and Design

• 3D Mapping: Crucial for visualizing underground spaces, identifying potential conflicts (tunnels, cables, building foundations), and resolving them early in the planning stages.
  • "So the 3D maps of these underground spaces allow us to look at potential conflicts and any pinch points upfront in the planning stages and try to deconflict them as early as possible, so that future implementation can be done much more smoothly."
• Land Optimization: UPLs are a key strategy for optimizing land use in Singapore due to limited land availability.
  • "Because we have very limited land, Singapore has to take a long-term approach to our planning. So with the limited land, we need to make use of our underground spaces as well to optimise our land use."
• Seamless Connectivity: UPLs facilitate seamless movement between high-density developments (e.g., Orchard, Marina Bay, Civic District) and major transit nodes (MRT stations).
  • "It's really meant to facilitate seamless movement of people from areas of high-density developments like in Orchard and Marina Bay and here in the Civic District, two transit nodes, like major underground MRT stations."

Funan UPL Case Study

• Location: Connects Funan to City Hall MRT and CityLink Mall, extending to Suntec City.
• Length: The route from Funan through City Hall MRT and CityLink Mall to Suntec is almost 1km long, currently the longest continuous network in Singapore.
• Construction Challenges:
  • Working with the unknown underground environment, including existing services and utilities at different levels.
  • Maintaining ground stability during tunneling.
  • Avoiding hidden utilities.
  • Minimizing road closures on North Bridge Road, a major arterial road.
• User Experience Considerations:
  • Generous scale and proportion (4m tunnel height) to avoid claustrophobia.
  • Lighting design (colored lights) to create a more enjoyable space.
  • Facade design and signage to break monotony.
  • Walls used as a canvas for festive art, branding, and projections, changing throughout the year.

Operations and Maintenance

• Daily Upkeep: Constant monitoring and maintenance to ensure optimal conditions.
• Air Quality, Cleanliness, and Brightness: Maintained due to the lack of natural ventilation and daylight.
  • "Since there is no natural ventilation and no daylight within this space, it is important to ensure that the air quality, cleanliness and brightness is maintained throughout the time it is operating."
• Lighting Control: Adjusted throughout the day to create different ambiances.
• Temperature Control: Chilled water systems maintain a constant temperature of 24°C.
  • "We try to maintain it at 24°C. So there will be set temperatures. It's basically a system that will trigger. By right, it should trigger whenever it goes beyond a certain temperature. That's how it works."
• Shelter: UPLs provide shelter from sun and rain.

Future of UPLs

• Shared Public Spaces: Future corridors are planned to serve as shared public spaces, not just connections.
• Curated and Differentiated Spaces: As the network grows, it's important to create unique and enjoyable spaces for pedestrians.
  • "As we become more built up and we have more UPLs that link buildings to buildings and to the MRT stations, it's more important that we have more curated, differentiated spaces that pedestrians can look forward to when they pass through on their daily commute journeys."

Conclusion

Singapore's UPL network is a sophisticated system that goes beyond simple tunnels. It represents a long-term strategy for land optimization, seamless connectivity, and enhanced pedestrian experience. The Funan UPL exemplifies the careful planning, engineering, and maintenance required to create comfortable and enjoyable underground spaces. Future UPLs will focus on creating curated and differentiated environments to further improve the daily commute for pedestrians.