Damaged pipe that flooded parts of Marine Parade fixed, affected road fully reopened to traffic

SINGAPORE – A damaged underground pipe in Marine Parade was fixed more than a day after water flowing through it flooded surrounding areas.

On the morning of Oct 4, a contractor accidentally

hit the potable water pipe

in Still Road South while building a lift on a pedestrian overhead bridge, resulting in muddy water spreading to roads, common areas and a playground.

The water also flooded and damaged a lift pit at Block 67 Marine Drive, making it unusable, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, an MP for the area, said in an Oct 4 Facebook post.

In an Oct 5 Facebook post, national water agency PUB said that the pipe was fixed at 4.40pm and that the leftmost lane of Still Road South, towards Eunos Link, reopened to traffic. It said: “Emergency repairs were conducted since yesterday afternoon and throughout the night to rectify the damage to the water pipe.”

This involved stabilising the excavation pit and further digging to allow workers to access and replace the damaged part of the pipe, PUB added.

Mr Tan said in a separate Facebook post on Oct 5 that the void decks at Blocks 66 and 67 Marine Drive and the pedestrian overhead bridge had been cleaned up.

The bridge has since been reopened for use, he added.

PUB had earlier said it will investigate further the flooding incident and follow up with enforcement action.

In an update on Oct 7, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that the contractor had been working on column pile caps, which support the link bridge from the lift to the overhead bridge during construction.

LTA has said that it would work with its contractor to review the incident to identify the cause and any necessary remedial actions.

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that the pipe was damaged while the contractor was working on a lift shaft. LTA has since clarified that the contractor, who was performing lift retrofitting works, had been working on column pile caps.