The final link of the interchange between Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and Tampines Expressway (TPE) has been completed ahead of schedule, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said in a Facebook post yesterday.

Residents will have more direct links to and from the KPE and TPE with the new interchange, which was previously projected to be completed by June next year.

This will help improve traffic flow on the TPE as well as the network of roads that lead out of the growing Punggol town area.

Previous extensions of the interchange include a new road to the TPE (towards Seletar Expressway) that provided motorists with an additional route between Pasir Ris and Punggol last November.

Another extension to Punggol Central Road in November 2018 took motorists to Halus Link, which connects to the KPE (towards East Coast Parkway) and to the TPE (towards Changi).

Mr Teo, who is also an MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, visited the new slip road that connects Punggol Central to the TPE yesterday with Senior Minister of State for Transport and Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor, as well as fellow Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MPs Desmond Tan - who is also Minister of State for Home Affairs and Sustainability and the Environment - and Yeo Wan Ling.

The link in Lorong Halus allows traffic from Pasir Ris and Punggol to flow smoothly onto the westbound TPE towards Jurong.

The six phases of the project took five years to complete, said Mr Teo.

Parts of the roadway in the new extension rest on 2,000 specially coated piles, which are around 50m deep, he said.

As an aside, the Senior Minister congratulated a Land Transport Authority project engineer who had two children, now aged three and nine months, in the midst of the project.