Suddenly, PUB has solution to once in 50-year old problem

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

A day after flash floods ground morning rush-hour traffic to a halt on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), national water agency PUB has come up with an interim plan to solve the problem in that area.

It will build a tidal gate at the Sungei Pandan Kechil canal within six to nine months. The 2m-tall steel gate near West Coast Road prevents high tide from the sea from flowing into the canal, by creating a temporary storage area.

"If we can cut out the influence of the tide, it helps buy some time during severe rain," PUB's director of catchment and waterways Tan Nguan Sen told The Straits Times.

A city-bound stretch of the AYE shut down for 40 minutes on Thursday morning, as the combination of heavy rain and high tides "stressed out" the area's drainage system, said Mr Tan, with water overflowing onto all four lanes of the major artery. The problem was compounded by the fact that the AYE sits atop a junction where three drains meet, before they channel out to the canal.

Because each drain carries water from a different direction, the intersection at which they meet faces a lot of resistance. This slows down the speed at which water can flow through, said Mr Tan.


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