Imagine the barriers...

After the announcement that Singapore will be hosting the Formula 1 Grand Prix this September, many have expressed their dreading of the imminent inconvenience caused by the shutting-off of several main roads in the Central Business District area. What makes the city so attractive is also what makes it the most inconvenient to host the street race. However, the organizers have laid out a careful plan with the Land Transport Authority on ways to mitigate the issue of inconvenience.

The circuit areas will be closed in 3 stages from September 20^th to October 2^nd. This will facilitate the erection of crash barriers, debris fencing and other final pieces to be assembled to the track. Specific areas of the Nicoll Highway will be closed from 26^th to 29^th September, but will be open to traffic on September 26^th, 27^th from 5am to 9am to allow people who need to travel to the area to access during the 4-hour window. 3 out of 4 lanes on the Nicoll Highway will be made available during the peak hours on certain days as well.

Republic Avenue, Republic Boulevard, Raffles Avenue and roads near Marina Square, Ritz Carlton and One Raffles Link will be opened from 5am to 9am on September 23-26.

After the race, the organizers will have to take off the added structures on the road, so the roads will be closed to public latest till October 2. Frequency of public transport has been increased to alleviate the inconvenience of those who will be going to the areas blocked off, with 26 bus routes diverted but special shuttle buses will be available.

Trains are expected to pass by City Hall MRT at a frequency of 2 to 3 minutes, while shuttle buses to Suntec City can be taken from Bugis and City Hall MRT stations at a frequency of 10-12 minutes from 6.30am to 7.00pm on September 16-28, except for on September 20-25 and 29, when the last bus will be at 12 midnight.

A temporary taxi stand will be made available at Suntec City, in addition to the other 3 existing taxi stands in that area. Taxis with passengers can drop them off at the taxi stands in the area, but those without passengers will not be allowed to enter the area. Taxis with passengers holding special access passes will be allowed into the basement carpark of Marina Square.

For the lucky ones with F1 tickets, there will be shuttle busses from Kallang, Lavender, Outram Park and Clarke Quay MRT stations that will stop near the gates to the track.

6 temporary overhead bridges will be erected over the track at certain areas. First, there will be one at the area of the Pit Grandstand closer to the East Coast Parkway, then there’s one leading from the back of the pit building to the other side of the track. The third will be over Raffles Boulevard, connecting the areas of Ritz Carlton Millenia and Millenia Walk. There will also be one after Turn 22, before the cars approach the Singapore Flyer. The fifth one will be connecting the areas of Esplanade and Marina Square while the last will be over St Andrew’s Road, connecting the Padang to the area near St Andrew Cathedral.

The bridges will be covered to prevent any mischief or intent to harm by throwing objects down, or overly enthusiastic fans dropping their flags. This can also prevent the bridges from being congested if the spectators decided to take a bird’s eye view of the circuit via the bridges.

As expected, those who did not get the tickets to the race will not be able to peep in for free. The barriers erected all around the track behind the spectator areas will be covered with cloth and are 2.4m high. Safety of everyone within the race venue will be taken care of with a 4.2m high barrier mounted on concrete to prevent the debris from reaching the spectators, while another 1.2m high barrier will be erected behind the marshal area to prevent spectators from getting into the track.

Drivers’ safety has also been taken care of with special flexible polyethylene barriers at turns in the circuit to absorb the impact from high speed crashes and reduce the injury to the drivers.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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