Construction works on a 25m-tall viaduct and rail tunnels for the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link are expected to start next quarter after a $180 million contract was awarded yesterday.

The second civil contract for the RTS Link - a 4km rail shuttle service connecting Singapore with Malaysia - was given to the Singapore branch of China Communications Construction Company, which is currently constructing the Boon Lay station on the Jurong Region Line, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said.

The RTS Link's viaduct will stand above the Strait of Johor within Singapore's territory at a height of 25m, LTA said, and will continue inland and transition to underground tunnels connecting to the terminus station in Woodlands North.

Last week, the LTA said the viaduct would be constructed using the balanced cantilever method. This would entail lifting concrete segments weighing up to 180 tonnes.

The award of the second civil contract comes a week after Singapore broke ground on the rail link.

Expected to be operational in end-2026, it will connect to Bukit Chagar in Johor Baru, where construction began last November.

Commuters departing from Woodlands North will be served by a terminus station and an immigration complex about 10 times the size of a typical MRT station.

Penta-Ocean Construction, which was awarded the first civil contract worth $932.8 million last November, is building the station, the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) building and the surrounding tunnels.

The rail link is expected to carry up to 10,000 passengers every hour in each direction, and the trip between both terminus stations should take only five minutes.

Before Covid-19 restrictions were imposed, close to 300,000 people crossed the Causeway daily.

Announced in 2010, the bilateral project was suspended in 2019 at the request of Malaysia which wanted to review its scope, structure and costs. It officially resumed in July last year.