The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced yesterday that the road realignment works surrounding the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) - which opened last December - will be completed by the 28th of September. Motorists travelling to Marina South, Marina Bay Financial Centre area, and among other areas including Maxwell Road, will benefit from the new roads after the current maze-like network is untangled, reported The Straits Times.
Central Boulevard - the main five-lane road there - will be straightened to run parallel to Marina Boulevard and will be one-way northbound, while Marina Boulevard will be one-way southbound.
Also, Bayfront Avenue will be extended past Marina Boulevard to run a loop near the Marina Bay MRT station.
Moreover, public transport commuters will also see changes when heading to the Marina South and Bay area from 28th September.
Bus services 106, 133, 400 and 402 will be rerouted while an existing bus stop along Central Boulevard in front of Marina Bay Financial Centre will be removed.
The four affected services calling at that bus stop will be rerouted to a bus stop along Marina Boulevard. In the opposite direction, two bus stops located along Central Boulevard, towards Shenton Way and Marina Station Road, will be removed. Bus service numbers 97, 106, 133, 400, 402, 502 and 513, which currently call at these bus stops, will now go to a new bus stop located after the junction of Central Boulevard and Bayfront Avenue.
Outlining the changes, the LTA also noted that East-West traffic flow has improved since the launch of the MCE nine months ago - despite an increase in volume during peak periods.
LTA Deputy Chief Executive, Chua Chong Kheng, cited this has resulted in smoother journeys for motorists in the city centre and has enabled the transport authority to reduce the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates on both the MCE and the East Coast Parkway (ECP) during certain time slots.
For example, two new gantries along the MCE started with a $6 ERP fee between 8:30pm and 9:00pm, but has reduced to $2 now. Also the ERP gantries on the ECP near Fort Road charge $3 now, from as high as $6 during the fourth quarter last year.
This was despite traffic volume flowing from the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and ECP having risen 26 percent per hour during the morning peak period. Flow in the opposite direction rose by 14 percent per hour in the evening peak period.
