On the morning of March 16, 2026, near the Bukit Panjang station in Singapore, construction workers were conducting routine ground monitoring. On this day, the Land Transport Authority of Singapore officially announced that it had awarded the final civil engineering contract for the DTL2e extension project of the urban line phase II to China Railway Tunnel Group, with a contract amount of approximately SGD 199 million. For residents who have been shuttling around Bukit Panjang Station for many years, this means that the subway line in front of their homes is about to extend westward, and engineers from China Railway Tunnel Bureau will face a shield tunneling construction challenge adjacent to the operating station.

A 1.8-kilometer tunnel runs underneath the highway

This contract covers the design and construction of a 1.8-kilometer double line shield tunnel between the existing Bukit Panjang Station and the first new station DE1 Station in the extension section. The tunnel will depart from Bukit Panjang Station and will need to pass through existing facilities such as Woodlands Road and the Kranji Expressway viaduct, placing extremely high demands on construction accuracy and settlement control.

Adjacent to the operating station presents great challenges

The main difficulty of the project lies in the fact that the starting position of the shield tunnel is adjacent to the operating Bukit Panjang Station, and the construction space is extremely limited. To reduce potential interference with existing line structures and normal operations, LTA will closely coordinate with the operator of the new metro system, arrange sensitive construction during non operational periods of the metro, and deploy a real-time ground stability monitoring system throughout the entire process. Keywords: Infrastructure Engineering News Network, Tunnel Infrastructure

Service to Northwest China will be launched in 2035

The total length of the DTL2e extension is about 4 kilometers, and three new stations are planned along the line. The main construction of the tunnel is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2026, and the extension is expected to officially open for passenger transport in 2035. After completion, the project will enhance the connectivity of rail transit in the northwest region of Singapore, shorten commuting time, and improve transportation services in emerging areas such as Yishun and Shuangxi Jiazhu Ecological Industrial Zone.Editor/Gao Xue