The replacement for the Golden Bridge in Shenton Way will not house any retail or food outlets, unlike its predecessor.
Instead it will be a sheltered open-air walkway that connects two mixed-use developments, V on Shenton and OUE Downtown, slated to be completed by May 2017.
The Golden Bridge, which links Shenton House with DBS Tower Two and SGX Centre, will be demolished during the Chinese New Year weekend to make way for the Thomson-East Coast MRT line.
In its heyday, it was air-conditioned, with escalators at both ends and shops within - a rare sight in a young developing Singapore.
Human resource manager Patrick Tan, 53, said: "There were shops on both sides. I remember liking to cross the bridge because of the air-con."
The bridge, which is named after the company - Golden Bridge - which built it, was one of only two pedestrian linkways in the Central Business District that include retail and food shops.
The other is OUE Link, formerly known as the Change Alley Link Bridge, which connects Raffles Place to the new Marina Bay Financial District.
In 2011, Golden Bridge was returned to the Government and food chain Kopitiam won a tender to lease the space. It ran a foodcourt there, which closed last November.
Mr Chan Heng Tong, 50, who ran a stall selling spinach soup at the foodcourt, said he will not miss working in the bridge. "There was no air- conditioning and no ventilation, it was almost like a sauna," he said.
His stall has since moved to Shenton House.
But sales executive N. Anandaraja, 71, who works at Shenton House, said he will miss the variety of food stalls there, which included a salad shop.
"Now I have to walk to Amoy Street to get my vegetarian food," he said.
