It’s great that Singapore’s present fleet of single-deck public buses have huge front and side windows, allowing passengers to take in plenty of the passing scenery. (I guess there’s a more practical reason - to allow them to spot their stops and not miss them.) Most models also have seats for one adult, or one adult and one child, near the boarding door. I like sitting at the one nearest to the door, as this gives me the best view of the moving scenery.
This past weekend, a significant event in the History of Movement in Singapore took place - the historic Jurong Road was closed on 27 September for future expungement.
In the 19th century, Jurong Road was laid down to connect what is now Upper Bukit Timah Road to the Sungei Jurong (now Jurong Lake) area. Over decades, the trunk road was lengthened in stages, until it met the sea at Tuas Village in the early 1930s. In all, its length was around 10 miles. Jurong Road became a major trunk road serving the rural southwestern part of Singapore Island.
(Around 1961, the trunk road west of the junction with Boon Lay Road - Jalan Boon Lay today - was renamed Upper Jurong Road to make it easier for the postal and utility services to locate addresses.)
Urban redevelopment arrived in Jurong, starting with industrialisation in the 1960s. Bukit Batok New Town came up in the 1980s, causing much of the eastern part of Jurong Road to be expunged. A small stretch next to Upper Bukit Timah Road survives as Old Jurong Road today.
Also, in the 1980s, the extension of the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) to the west of the island permanently separated Jurong Road from Upper Jurong Road. More of Jurong Road was expunged, leaving a 2.5-km stretch just north of the PIE - the stretch which closed this past weekend.
Meanwhile, a small part of Upper Jurong Road has also survived, mostly next to SAFTI Military Institute.
It is clear that in the Jurong area, the PIE has replaced the Jurong-Upper Jurong trunk road as the primary channel for motor vehicles. What is left of Jurong Road was a time capsule of an era when trunk roads served the rural parts of Singapore - but no longer.
Throughout modern Singapore’s history, a persistent theme is that of old channels of Movement being replaced by new channels. Jurong Road will suffer the same fate - it will make way for viaducts of the upcoming Jurong Region MRT Line, and road connections between Tengah town and the PIE. As reported in the news:
Motorists and residents of the upcoming Tengah town in the west will have direct access to the Pan-Island Expressway by 2027.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be calling a tender for new connections which will include a flyover, and which will also give residents in Jurong town another link to the PIE.
The project involves building new roads and modifying existing ones.
It includes a 0.5km dual four-lane flyover along PIE near the exit to Jurong Canal Drive, a road junction below the flyover that will connect the PIE, Jurong Canal Drive and Tengah Boulevard leading to Tengah town, and widening of the PIE between Hong Kah Flyover and Bukit Batok Flyover.
The LTA said yesterday the tender will be called by the end of this year.
To facilitate the construction of the new flyover and a surface road junction, a 1.5km stretch of the PIE will be moved northwards onto a part of Jurong Road.
With this, traffic along Jurong Road will be re-routed to the PIE before joining Bukit Batok Road...
I’ve explored Jurong Road several times over the last few years, the most recent trip being a couple of weeks ago, after I read about the road’s imminent closure. Right to the end of its existence, the road has remained a single-lane dual carriageway, mostly without pavements or curbs; to the south, a buffer of grass and trees next to the PIE; to the north, what is left of the secondary forest of Tengah after mass clearance for Tengah town. I will miss the rustic peace and quiet walking along the road, and I will miss the company of the tall, mature trees lining the road.
I will also miss the bus stops along the road - some of them are themselves time capsules, bearing the names of old roads and tracks which had gone out of use and / or been expunged. Examples include Track 18, Track 22, and Hong Kah Circle. With the closure of these bus stops, the last physical reminders of these lost roads will disappear too.
A bus enthusiast did a great job of filming the road and the bus service - SBS Transit’s 174 - which plied it until the night of 27 September, including the last buses to traverse the road in both directions. The YouTube video is here.
A YouTube user then commented on the video:
Jurong Road, it has been a good ride, and thank you for your service.
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.
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.
