1.  The installation of the railway noise barriers is gaining momentum, thanks to the additional engineering hours that have been allocated to rail engineers and maintenance crew since last December when the implementation of early closures, late openings, and full day closures along certain stretches of the rail network started.  These extra hours have been useful in providing the crew with more track access time for maintenance and improvement works, including the installation of noise barriers.

2.  To date, more than 80 per cent of the 11.5km of noise barriers under Phase 1 have been installed, with the remaining works on track for completion this year. Design works for Phase 2 are ongoing, with installation works expected to start in the second half of the year.

More Track Access Possible Due To Shortened Passenger Service Hours

3.  Installing railway noise barriers is a complex and laborious process involving extensive retrofitting of existing railway structures. Installation must be done on-site, after passenger service hours and coordinated with other ongoing maintenance and improvement works. With the early closures and late openings, longer engineering hours now help the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) engineers and its contractors to access the train tracks for a longer period of time. This allows them to achieve much more than they previously could have, under a typical regime of three engineering hours per night. For example, what would have taken the team three to four nights can now be completed within a typical weekend of extended engineering hours.

4.  LTA will continue to ride on this momentum to speed up the installation of the noise barriers. More details will be announced in due course.

Installation Works Commence At Turnout Locations

5.  Meanwhile, LTA has also commenced installation works for noise barriers at turnout sections of the rail viaducts, starting with the section at Lakeside MRT station. These turnout noise barriers have a different design from the plainline noise barriers, to better mitigate the noise profile at these locations (see Annex).

Island-wide Noise Measurement Study To Be Carried Out

6.  Measurements taken at various residential buildings after the noise barriers were installed have shown a noise reduction of at least 5dBA (decibel) from passing trains. When all the railway noise barriers have been installed, residents living near the aboveground MRT tracks can look forward to an improved living environment with noise levels perceptibly reduced.

7.  As part of our ongoing efforts to reduce the impact of railway noise near residential areas, LTA will be doing a more in-depth island-wide noise measurement study. The findings from this study will be used to plan for the appropriate noise mitigation measures in the future.


Annex: Turnout and Plainline Noise Barriers