Jurong Rock Caverns
Land in Singapore is so precious that simply using it to
store commodities is such a waste. The Jurong Rock Cavern is a 130-metre-deep
cave under Jurong Island that stores oil like naphtha and condensate (JTC,
2014). It is meant to free up surface space so that space above the ground can
serve other important uses instead of just storing hydrocarbons.
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| Photo from JTC, 2014 |
Interesting facts about the Jurong Rock Caverns (Lim, 2014):
1.
This project took 6 years of planning and 8
years of construction.
2.
Why so long? Because the cavern is hollowed out
using explosives and it takes 1.5 to 2 years for each cavern to be excavated.
3.
The caverns made available 60 ha of land on the
surface.
4.
The caverns are the deepest known public construction
in Singapore, deeper than the deep tunnel sewerage system (remember this from
our NEWater field trip?)
5.
The 3.5 million m3 of rock excavated
will be utilised for land reclamation and laying roads.
6.
During the caverns’ opening ceremony, Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that this project exemplifies Singapore's determination to develop
a petrochemical industry, despite our limited land area and the likely effect of
the coming UN Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty on carbon
emissions.
Underground Science City
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| Photo from Straits Times |
When we think about an underground research lab, we would
probably think of an evil villain’s secret lab where all the genetic
experiments, flasks full of weird chemicals or robotic assistants are hidden. Well,
there are plans to build an underground research lab in Singapore, not for mad
scientists of course, but for research and development. JTC is considering the
proposal of an underground Science City to be located underneath Kent Ridge
Park (not too far from NUS!) which could house “4200 scientists, researchers
and professionals” (Feng, 2012). The Science City would consist of 40
connecting rock caverns and up to four levels worth of commercial space (Feng,
2012). According to the Straits Times report (2012), building a science city
beneath the ground can make use of the ground’s natural isolation against noise
and vibration and can easily contain the fall-out of hazardous substances.
If underground structures are so great, why hasn’t Singapore
built more of them? The answer lies in the cost of constructing underground
buildings. The differential rock geology of Singapore’s ground makes excavation
more expensive (Chin, 2013). An example would be the harder granite and norite
rocks found in Bukit Timah and Bukit Gombak respectively (Sharma et al., 1999).
On the other hand, the sedimentary rocks in Jurong are quite weathered, making
them easier to excavate. According to the Straits Times report by Chin (2013),
the cost of building one storey below ground is the same as building three
storeys on the surface. This can be very expensive judging by the number of
underground structures we have to build to compensate for those above ground. Hence,
unless Singapore has exhausted all means of cost-effective land use,
underground structures are not likely to dominate the country in the near
future.
Stay tuned to the next post for something really interesting and unexpected (I hope)!
Literature cited:
Chin, D. (2013) Singapore’s (costly) underground ambitions. The Straits Times. 10 September 2013.
Feng, Z. K. (2012) JTC looking at plan for underground science
city. The Straits Times. 14 November
2012.
JTC Corporation. (2014) Jurong Rock Caverns. [Online]
Available from
http://www.jtc.gov.sg/RealEstateSolutions/Pages/Jurong-Rock-Caverns.aspx.
[Accessed: 12 October 2014]
Lim, L. (2014) Singapore opens S$950m underground rock
cavern at Jurong. Channel News Asia.
[Online] 2 September 2014. Available from: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-opens-s-950m/1341836.html.
[Accessed 11 October 2014]
Sharma, J. S., Chu, J. & Zhao, J. (1999) Geological and
Geotechnical features of Singapore: An Overview. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology. 14(4). p.419-431
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