11/14/2013

$4.3b for 5 km of marvel

The Marina Coastal Expressway cost the people $4.3b. Let me make this number simpler. It is $860m for one kilometer of road. Or let me make it more down to earth, it is $860,000 for 1 metre of road. Does this make any sense to you? Can you appreciate what this mean?
 

OK, you live in a 5 rm HDB flat. How much does it cost you when you bought it? At today’s price direct from the HDB it can vary from $300k to $600k depending on the location. One can get a resale unit in one in the urban area for just about this price.
 

In other words, the cost to build one meter of the expressway is equivalent to one to three HDB 5rm flats. I think this is the bigger marvel than the 420m stretch under the sea. It must be great value. Some experts reportedly said this price tag could well be justified. They are not sure, I think.
 

Who can authorize the spending of such a big sum of money and what is the process before the project is approved?
 

I like the marvel part. We should build more marvels.

29 comments:

oldhorse42 said...

It is built underwater what! So more costly lor!

Anonymous said...

The state-controlled media is already trying to 'protect' its political master by saying ' ..ave price price pf $860 million a kilometre but expert say this price tag could well be justified' failing to give the break down of the costs.

Anonymous said...

PAP has the mandate from the 60% to spend $4.3b for 5 km of marvel.

You don't like it and want to spend it your way or even save the money, then get the mandate from the 60% at the next available opportunity in 2016.

There is simply no other way, tio bo?



Anonymous said...

Frankly speaking what is so marvelous an architecture, which is a mere 5-km tunnel-- when a man can easily run 2.5km in 10 mins !!

The media is exaggerating it so as shift the attention of the cost factor.

Anonymous said...

Some motorists willing to spend 6 figure sum on a car but where possible, will try to avoid a few dollars of parking fees.

So we must also understand why the PAP do not want to spend a bit more on the poor but willing to spend billions on a few km of road.

b said...

Its paid by all the taxpayers (direct or indirect) with the permission of 60% voters. This world is full of bullshits.

Anonymous said...

Please the govt is spending S$1,100,000,000-00 to buy buses !! announced last year now it is talking about fare increase.

hey if one bus is $100,000 you can buy ONE thousand BUSES !!

Today the comfortdelgro just announced a 5.4% PROFIT rise today

revenue 978.4 million as for the 3 months to Sept 30 2013

Anonymous said...

Marmaray (pronounced [ˈmaɾmaˌɾaj] ( listen)) is a rail transport project in the Turkish city of Istanbul. It comprises an undersea rail tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, and the modernization of existing suburban railway lines along the Sea of Marmara from Halkalı on the European side to Gebze on the Asian side.

The project includes a 13.6-kilometre (8.5 mi) Bosphorus crossing, the upgrade of 63 kilometres (39 mi) of suburban train lines to create a 76.3-kilometre (47.4 mi) high-capacity line between Gebze and Halkalı, and the provision of 440 electric multiple unit cars.

The Bosphorus (Istanbul Strait) is crossed by a 1.4-kilometre-long (0.87 mi) earthquake-proofed immersed tube, assembled from 11 sections; eight are 135 metres (443 ft), two are 98.5 metres (323 ft), and one element is 110 metres (360 ft) long.[7] The elements weigh up to 18,000 tons.[8] The sections have been placed down to 60 metres (197 ft) below sea level: 55 metres (180 ft) of water and 4.6 metres (15 ft) of earth.[8] This underwater tube is accessed by bored tunnels from Kazlıçeşme on the European side and Ayrılıkçeşme on the Asian side of Istanbul.


It represents the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel. Fire-resistant concrete developed in Norway was crucial for the safety of the project.[9]

Anonymous said...

How much did the Turkish project built by Japan costs?

BBC news-
Japan invested $1bn of the $4bn (£3.4bn) total cost of the project, named Marmaray, which is a conflation of the nearby Sea of Marmara with "ray", the Turkish word for rail.

Anonymous said...

for transparency the Parliament should ask for a cost break-down from the relevant authority

Anonymous said...

Only in Singapore;
$1 million/year for a Minister
$860 million/km for a highway

I give up!
I'm voting Opposition for a cheaper govt.

Anonymous said...

oh my fucking god ...

give this money to the bharat they can build spacecrafts to travel to outer, outer space beyond the milky way

they can even make the sun a habitable planet and rice growing on the distant pluto

knnccb ..... cunt imagine some fellow citizens do not even have one hundred dollars in their accounts, sad to admit i am falling into this group too

Anonymous said...

this tunnel ... lead to ATLANTIS?

hidden berths to hide submarines?

paved with gold?

inspired by Dr NO?

they built a tunnel to reach the opposite side of earth?

knnccb ... is dumbfounded

Anonymous said...

remember this number 420m, that that is ONLY about one round the stadium. It takes only 18 seconds at 80km/h to cross it.

420m under the sea is no justification for such high costs.

the Turkish tunnel,the section under the sea ALONE is ALREADY
1.4KM 60m deep & earthquake proof built by Japan

Anonymous said...

How long is the tunnel crossing from France to UK and when was it built?

And the Turkey project only cost $4b! The MCE project is really peanuts but cost more.

Anonymous said...

Hope there is a good investigative reporting to shed some light on the cost components by the online media

dun expect the state media to do it as their hands are tied!!!

Anonymous said...

$4.3b is $4,300,000,000. If one bus is $100,000, you can buy 43,000 buses. Not 1,000.

Anonymous said...

wow the amount is astronimical !

the amount $1.1B allocated last year by the TRANSPORT MINISTRY CAN ACTUALLY BUY 11,000 BUSES ASSUMING @ $100,000/-

THEN Why are the asking for fare revision ?

Anonymous said...

the whole of SBST has only 3500 buses !

the Transport ministry really 'no horse run'



Anonymous said...

The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche; also referred to as the Chunnel)[2][3] is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent, in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais, near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. --wiki

this is still not the longest tunnel in the world YET it is already 10 times longer then the so called 'marvel' described in the shitty times

Anonymous said...

Only our despicable Captain Marvel can approve this stupidity.

Anonymous said...

I believe this would add to gdp growth? No?

Virgo49 said...

Hi Anon@7.27

SIN's GDP only internal own construction paid out monies.

Others build overseas and bring back monies.

So our GDP statistics only humbug.

At this costs?? Got follow Malaysia or not??

Every project- ada or tidak???



Anonymous said...

Can register as the 8th Wonder of the World. Most expensive piece of road.

Anonymous said...

Of course.
Think it is very cheap.
Imagine the immense work and under water but not sunkened. Water proofing and pressure resistance would have cost a bomb.
Engineering feat and worthy of pride.

Anonymous said...

It is cheap lah.
Because it could be peanuts
to those paying for it.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

This is infrastructure in keeping with the planned goal of transforming Singapore into a vibrant metropolis of 9 million or more souls.

Please lah, a bit of possitive attitude perhaps?

Anonymous said...

hope no leaks or floods.
funny not planned for 20 yrs down the road when there's 13million. seems to be planned for traffic today, by our govt which has great foresight.

Anonymous said...

The people must get use to everything smaller. If given the chance, they will shrink the people to half the size to conserve space and resources.