A new U-turn in Dunearn Road near Newton Circus opened yesterday, allowing drivers to turn into Woodlands-bound Bukit Timah Road without having to use the congested roundabout.

With this, all the enhancement works at Newton Circus, which began in 2017, have been completed.

Another U-turn, on the other side of Newton Circus, opened in 2019 for motorists to turn from Woodlands-bound Bukit Timah Road towards the city.

The authorities hope these will reduce the number of vehicles using the roundabout, where an average of nine accidents a year were recorded between 2016 and 2018.

Thousands of people should benefit from the completion of the project, which was slightly delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The junction links many residential areas, including those along Balmoral Road, Goldhill Avenue, Stevens Road and Chancery Lane, and is close to a number of kindergartens and secondary schools.

Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Alvin Tan, an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC who represents the area, said the new U-turn will help motorists and residents better navigate Newton Circus, which "can be a bit of a mess". Parents dropping off their children in schools nearby - such as Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) - will hopefully find peak-hour traffic less daunting, he added.

"The new U-turn should alleviate traffic even more than the previous U-turn opened in 2019," he said, adding that he had to placate some residents who were unhappy about the delay.

Over the years, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) made various changes to Newton Circus.

It added a new pedestrian crossing between Newton Road and Dunearn Road, completed in July, to allow easier access to Newton MRT station. Newton Circus was widened in June to give more space for vehicles, especially public buses, which found it difficult to manoeuvre around the turn.

Traffic lights were added in June at the roundabout junction of Bukit Timah Road and Clemenceau Avenue North.

Civil servant Wesley Cheong, 42, who used to drive his child to a school near Newton Circus daily, said he almost got into an accident several times before the changes.

"Motorists entering the circus from Clemenceau Avenue North often criss-cross lanes. With the improvements, the lane markings are very clear, so motorists will know which lane is for entering the Circus and which is for turning left into Scotts Road," he said.

Mr Cheong reckoned that journey times could be cut by as much as 10 minutes with the new roads.

Retired consultant Amy Lau, who has lived in Newton for more than 20 years, is relieved the road works have been completed.

"It was so bad in the past and the jams were impossible. Drivers got into their lanes too late and often edged into other lanes without caring if they were blocking traffic," said Ms Lau, who is in her 60s.

"It has been a few years of uncertainty. The construction meant there were many road blocks and sometimes the direction of traffic was different in the morning and the evening."

The LTA also gave updates of enhancement works at the Balmoral Road junction. Two U-turns were added there in June - one in front of ACS (Primary) and the second in front of Balmoral Plaza.

The roads along that stretch were widened, and a new slip road from Chancery Lane to Dunearn Road added in March allows vehicles to filter out quickly.

Two more projects, a sheltered walkway along Bukit Timah Road and Dunearn Road, and a drop-off shelter in front of Goodwood Residence, are under construction.