The origin of Woodbridge

Singapore used to have a pretty place name, Woodbridge.

I am not being sarcastic here. By itself, the name “Woodbridge” is quaint, and evokes visions of a rural countryside, with dirt tracks running to a wooden bridge over a rushing stream. Unfortunately, the name has been irrevocably tainted with decades of stigma associated with mental illness.

The Institute of Mental Health (IMH) used to be known as Woodbridge. It began in 1928 as the Mental Hospital to the east of Yio Chu Kang Road, and was renamed Woodbridge Hospital in 1951. As part of institutional reforms for the treatment of mental issues in Singapore, the ageing complex was demolished in the early 1990s for a new one slightly to the northeast in Buangkok Green, and was accordingly renamed IMH.

Woodbridge Hospital in 1965. Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

A ward in Woodbridge Hospital, 1965. Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

Credit: Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

IMH today. Credit: Google Maps.

There was also a road named Woodbridge. In the 1960s, part of historic Yio Chu Kang Road next to Woodbridge Hospital was realigned, to straighten the trunk road. The new channel retained the name Yio Chu Kang Road, while the original one was renamed Jalan Woodbridge, after the hospital next to it.

The 1966 street directory, showing Yio Chu Kang Road next to Woodbridge Hospital. Jalan Woodbridge, in blue, used to be part of Yio Chu Kang Road. However, Yio Chu Kang Road was straightened, and a new channel constructed, shaded yellow. The yellow road remains part of Yio Chu Kang Road today.

However, because of the stigma, the road was renamed Gerald Drive in 1998, after neighbouring Gerald Crescent. With that, the place name Woodbridge passed into history.

Gerald Drive today. Credit: Google Maps.

What gave rise to the place name Woodbridge, though?

While the name could have been of a European personality, the first thing that comes to mind is an actual wooden bridge in the area. If so, where was this bridge, and what became of it?

I might have found the location of this bridge.

In 1998, in his interviews with the National Archives of Singapore, retired rubber plantation manager Douglas Hiorns shared the following tidbit:

... (We) call it Jalan Hwi Yoh but it was very much a dirt track. And that petered out on after the Pang Kio, which is the Woodbridge and that it kind of just dispersed...

Jalan Hwi Yoh was a rural road running west of Yio Chu Kang Road. According to old maps of the area, it did run over a river, the Sungei Tongkang, a tributary of the Sungei Punggol, presently Punggol Reservoir. After crossing the Sungei Tongkang, Jalan Hwi Yoh indeed “petered out”, from a metalled road (marked by lines) to a footpath (marked by dotted lines). It seems that the crossing over the Sungei Tongkang was Pang Kio, or the original Woodbridge, the wooden bridge.

In 1961, Jalan Hwi Yoh - shaded blue - ran over the Sungei Tongkang, in the red box. According to Hiorns, this could have been the original Woodbridge. Base picture credit: National Archives of Singapore.

Today, the Sungei Tongkang has been canalised, but its course through the site of the original Woodbridge has more or less remained the same. After comparing old and present-day maps, I can confirm that the area has been redeveloped into an industrial park in Serangoon North. The location of the original Woodbridge still has a bridge over the canalised Sungei Tongkang - this time, Serangoon North Avenue 6 runs over the unnamed, modern, concrete bridge.

The new Woodbridge - a concrete bridge carrying Serangoon North Avenue 6 over Sungei Tongkang. Base picture credit: Google Maps.

The bridge carrying Serangoon North Avenue 6 over the Sungei Tongkang, facing north. Credit: Google Maps.

This is the new Woodbridge!

(I also find it quite amusing that an industrial building next to the new Woodbridge is occupied by Iron Mountain, a storage and information management services company founded in the United States. It seems fitting that an iron mountain lies next to a wooden bridge...)

So, the original Woodbridge is now part of the neighbourhood of Serangoon North. The site of Woodbridge Hospital has been redeveloped into the HDB flats of Hougang Avenue 9 and Hougang Street 91. These are more examples of the geography of place names changing or shifting over time because of urban redevelopment, as I’ve described in my book Jalan Singapura.

Of course, as with many historical narratives, there is a postscript, containing elements which do not fit in with the rest of a seemingly complete story.

In this case, Hiorns’ account does not really sync with the news report of the official naming of Woodbridge Hospital in 1951:

Chinese residents in Yeo Chu Kang have a name of their own for the Singapore Mental Hospital. They call it the “Woodbridge Hospital” because a wooden bridge used to be over the stream which runs by the side of the hospital.

Government has, therefore, to use the same name.

Hiorns’ location of Pang Kio, or Woodbridge, along Jalan Hwi Yoh doesn’t fit the description of “over the stream which runs by the side of the hospital”, as the Sungei Tongkang is quite some distance from Woodbridge Hospital.

One possible explanation is that Hiorns was correct, and the news article had printed wrong information about the location of the wooden bridge. Another explanation is that Hiorns was wrong, and the news article was correct, which meant the original Woodbridge was closer to the hospital. A third explanation is that both Hiorns and the news article were correct - and that there were two wooden bridges, both named Pang Kio or Woodbridge, the one closer to the hospital giving its name to the hospital. After all, I’m sure there were hundreds of wooden bridges all over Singapore.

So many possible paths in the landscape of History. I suspect more revelations to come.

This is the nature of History to me - fascinating, revealing, frustrating, and never a closed book.

A walkway for the Causeway

The Johor state government is planning to build a 350m covered walkway for pedestrians on the Malaysian side of the Causeway, at a cost of RM30 million (S$9.9 million), a senior Johor official said.

Once completed, the project would make it more comfortable for the hundreds of people who walk across the land link connecting Johor Baru to Woodlands, said Mr Mohd Solihan Badri, Johor’s state executive councillor for the public works, infrastructure and transport committee on Sunday, as quoted by Bernama news agency.

Before the coronavirus pandemic led to the general closure of the Causeway, more than 300,000 people used the land link each day, including some 100,000 who commuted daily to work in Singapore.

Most commuters used motorcycles, cars and buses to get across what is reputed to be the world’s busiest border crossing.

But in normal times, hundreds of people are often seen walking across the Causeway daily to reach the other side faster due to the traffic snarls.

And because there is no motor traffic on the Causeway now, the only commuter traffic are the people walking across. It makes sense to build something to better serve them.

An empty Causeway on 18 March 2020, after Malaysia implemented its Movement Control Order. There were pedestrians walking across though. Credit: BusInterchange.Net.

Malaysia’s federal government has doubled its initial allocation of RM15 million after the walkway was redesigned, with the addition of escalators and air-conditioning, Mr Mohd Solihan told reporters on the sidelines of the Johor state assembly proceedings.

“The construction will involve the Home Ministry and Works Ministry as the Johor Causeway is maintained by the Malaysian Highway Authority,” he said.

Mr Mohd Solihan did not say whether the covered walkway would be built on pedestrian paths on the existing 1km road link, or whether a new structure would be added by the side of the link.

“The distance of 350m ends at the border with Singapore. However, for Singapore, I’m not sure how long the distance is going to be,” Bernama quoted him as saying.

According to Mr Mohd Solihan, pedestrians are actually prohibited on the Johor Causeway, but the authorities have not taken any action against them.

This is new to me. It explains why a covered walkway was never constructed, even though the Causeway is close to a century old (it opened in 1923).

If the covered walkway becomes reality, then the movement of pedestrians across the Causeway will unofficially be “legalised”.

He said Singapore Consulate officials in Johor Baru whom he met had expressed interest in the project, Bernama reported.

It will make sense for Singapore to complete the walkway on its end of the crossing, as long as the cost is not prohibitive.

What a curious way to commemorate a hundred years of the Causeway’s existence. It was originally built with rail and motor traffic in mind, but now, humble pedestrian traffic - probably numbering in the dozens daily, not the usual hundreds of thousands - is its raison d'être.

The Causeway in 1924, a year after completion. The link has been widened since. Credit: Remember Singapore.

The next generation of road pricing

In 1975, the Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) was unveiled in Singapore - a transport milestone. For the first time in modern Singapore’s history, motorists had to pay to use congested roads; it was the world’s first intra-city cordon-based road-pricing system. Motorists paid a few dollars for daily paper licences to enter the Restricted Zone, which covered the Central Area. Auxiliary policemen had to be posted at gantries to spot vehicles entering the RZ without a valid licence.

An ALS gantry over Bencoolen Street. Credit: National Archives of Singapore.

Eu Tong Sen Street. Credit: National Archives of Singapore.

The junction of Orchard Road and Scotts Road. A warden is looking out for vehicles without valid licences. Credit: National Archives of Singapore.

An area licence, valid only on the printed date. Credit: Singapore Memory Project.

As technology advanced, the system evolved. Twenty-three years later, in 1998, the ALS was replaced by the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, which employed computers, cameras, radio waves, and smart cards slotted into in-vehicle units. ERP removed the need for wardens to look out for vehicles without valid licences; also, the pricing system taxed motorists for each access of a road, instead of granting them unlimited daily access with one licence. The system was also gradually broadened to congested roads and expressways outside the Central Area. My book Jalan Singapura details all these.

An ERP gantry over North Bridge Road. Credit: Mailer_diablo, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Now, the next generation of road pricing is upon us - sort of. By 2023, 25 years after the launch of ERP, it will transition to a satellite-based system, and a million vehicles will have to be installed with new on-board units, with bigger screens displaying maps, traffic information, and safety alerts.

However, plans to convert the tax from a cordon-based system to a distance-based one have been put on hold for now.

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung recently said: “Distance-based charging is a significant policy change which has many implications and should be studied carefully.

“The new ERP system is capable of charging by distance,” he added, “but as a policy we are holding back”.

To sum up, “how ERP works will not change. What will change is that there is no need for big gantries anymore.”

Distance-based charging definitely requires closer study, because it might disadvantage certain groups of motorists, such as those who live in the suburbs but work in the Central Area, taxi and private-hire drivers who have to cruise around for fares or travel to passengers’ pick-up locations, and delivery and transport businesses, to name a few.

There are other kinks to iron out. The new on-board unit, which comprises an antenna, a touchscreen display, and a processing unit, has received criticism for its perceived bulkiness. Also, the card-based mode of payment remains unchanged; I had expected the payment to go cardless, what with the Republic’s Smart Nation Initiative.

Anyway, it is still early days yet; the transition will take three years. Private car owners have been given more than enough notice. Hopefully, the third generation of road pricing will not just properly regulate road usage, it will also persuade more to give up their cars and use public transport instead.