A quiet path

One of my hobbies includes exploring historic roads which have been forgotten or are hardly used. One such road I traversed today was Ang Mo Kio Street 66, which is actually off Yio Chu Kang Road, to the farthest north of Ang Mo Kio town in the popular imagination.

Ang Mo Kio Street 66 was once part of Yio Chu Kang Road. However, this stretch of the trunk road was straightened and realigned in the 1970s. The new channel retained the name Yio Chu Kang Road, while part of the old was renamed Ang Mo Kio Street 66.

The northern part of Yio Chu Kang Road in 1966. The trunk road is shaded blue.

A map of the same area in 2020. The original Yio Chu Kang Road is shaded blue; part of the channel is now Ang Mo Kio Street 66, serving Amoy Quee Camp. A short stretch shaded yellow has been slightly realigned to create a new junction.

I suspect this road was retained only because it serves Amoy Quee Camp. If the army camp should ever be redeveloped, the road will lose its function and it could be expunged or realigned.

Throughout the one and a half hours I was there, I came across just one van using the road. Other than that, the road was entirely mine. I love such quiet roads; as a pedestrian who usually has to give way to motor vehicles, I could now “reclaim” the road as my own.

The road serves Amoy Quee Camp, the headquarters of the National Cadet Corps.