Alternatives to Partial Demolition of Ellison Building

Mdm, Speaker, the North-South Corridor (NSC) is an integrated transport corridor which incorporates bus lanes, cycling trunk routes and an expressway that runs elevated as well as underground. When completed, it will connect the residential towns and estates in the north, such as Woodlands, Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Toa Payoh, to the city centre.

Given the 21-kilometre length of the NSC, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had conducted detailed engineering studies over many years. Throughout this time, agencies worked very hard to minimise the impact of the NSC works on neighbouring buildings and developments.

The segment of the NSC leading into the city centre runs underneath Bukit Timah Road, where space is extremely tight due to the underground public infrastructure in that area. On one side of Bukit Timah Road is the underground Rochor Canal. This is an important drainage facility which helps low-lying areas in the city cope with intense periods of rainfall. The North-East Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line (NEL) cuts across Bukit Timah Road, while the Downtown MRT Line (DTL) runs beneath Bukit Timah Road. This means that the NSC tunnels must run in between the foundations of existing buildings along both sides of Bukit Timah Road, the underground Rochor Canal as well as the NEL and DTL stations, as well as tunnels.

I wish we had a 3D diagram to show Members of all these underground facilities that criss-cross this underground space, but we do not have that facility here. If we do, it will give Members a better sense.

This is a very challenging engineering task for LTA. Sufficient clearance distance must be allowed between the NSC tunnels and the surrounding underground structures for safety reasons.

The NSC tunnel also cannot be lowered further into the ground to avoid these underground infrastructures, as doing so will require extensive ramps and portal structures to connect the NSC carriageway with surface streets which will then affect the nearby MRT stations and impact many more other buildings and development. Given these constraints, LTA has had to work out the best possible alignment for the NSC tunnel under the circumstances.

Madam, the original alignment for the NSC would have impacted even more buildings and developments and spaces, including Rex Cinema, as well as several of the shophouse units at Ellison Building, much more than what the public is aware of today. In fact, Rex Cinema was completely affected in the initial alignments. Nevertheless, we recognised the heritage value of Rex Cinema and Ellison Building. Hence, agencies were committed to carrying out detailed engineering studies to further minimise the impact on these buildings. On that basis, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) proceeded to gazette the two buildings for conservation in 2008.

Indeed, the agencies had worked hard to carry out extensive studies and eventually managed to develop a solution for the NSC to avoid Rex Cinema completely. However, given the very tight space in the Bukit Timah Road corridor, the NSC alignment will not be able to avoid Ellison Building entirely – at least the space underneath the building – which, unlike Rex Cinema, stands much closer to the road carriageway. And I am sure the Member has seen maps that show this. These engineering studies were concluded only recently, and the result is that the impact on Ellison Building can, under current plans, be reduced to one corner shophouse unit, instead of a larger portion or the entire building.

Subsequently, LTA put out a tender to invite applications from contractors to be prequalified for the design and build civil contracts for the NSC tunnels. This is a prequalification tender and the document gave general descriptions of the scope of works in these subsequent civil contracts, including the fact that the contractor has to undertake works on part of Ellison Building. Now, these prequalification tender specifications were not just about Ellison Building. They were about the north and south, the whole length of the NSC, from north all the way to south where it terminates. It was not the actual tender for the construction of NSC.

LTA's intention had been that following this tender for prequalification of the contractors, LTA will engage a conservation specialist to provide advice on how to better protect Ellison Building. This is akin to how, in the case of Circle Line 6 which will affect part of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station (TPRS), LTA had similarly engaged conservation specialists to advise on how they could remove and reinstate part of the TPRS platforms.

We recognise that the circumstances of each development are unique and the conservation measures have to be tailored accordingly.

In this regard, LTA and URA have started engaging heritage groups to seek their views on how to better protect the Ellison Building when the construction process begins. There have been two rounds of discussion thus far, which centred on possible mitigating measures to protect the building during the construction of the NSC. In taking this forward, LTA's conservation consultant will explore various mitigating measures in detail as part of the study on Ellison Building.

URA and LTA will continue to work closely with the heritage groups and the heritage community in Singapore on the construction methods to protect Ellison Building, as well as the measures that should be taken to preserve the heritage and history of that site. The Government will finalise its implementation plans after these discussions are concluded.

I thank the Senior Minister of State. The newspaper announcement that Ellison Building, or at least that part, will be demolished was actually quite disconcerting. And that is why a lot of non-government organisations (NGOs) responded to it.

Are there no other options? Could the NGOs be engaged much earlier in the upstream discussions so that such miscommunication will not happen?

The third thing that I want to check is: would the Ministry consider making culture impact assessment mandatory and compulsory in such development projects? When I say culture impact assessment, it will not just be heritage impact assessment, but also social, environmental as well as economic impact assessments.

I thank the Member for his comprehensive series of questions. Let me deal with the last question first.

As the Member would probably be aware, the Ministry of Culture, Community and the Youth had about two years back announced plans for a heritage survey to be conducted in different parts of Singapore and that will aid in our current conservation process.

As the Member is aware, the current conservation process involves URA looking at various areas, buildings and places with the potential for conservation. It is based on what URA assesses to be potential sites. It also works with Government agencies like the National Heritage Board and takes in views from the Conservation Advisory Panel set up since 2002, which comprises many passionate members of the heritage community. URA takes views from heritage groups directly and suggestions from the public. URA will then assess with the assistance of Government agencies.

If a site is deemed to be worthy of conservation based on historical, architectural and aesthetic merits and so on, URA will then put it out as a gazette and invite the larger public to comment. The building owners, if it is a private property, will also be consulted and their views taken into account, because conservation does impact their flexibility to use the building. We have to then strike the right balance. After a decision is made, it will then be gazetted, as was in this case for Ellison Building and Rex Cinema at the side.

Let me assure the Member that all efforts were taken by the agencies, including the heritage departments in URA, to minimise the impact on Ellison Building.

As I said earlier, initial plans would involve the whole building going. At that point in time, Ellison Building and Rex Cinema were not conserved. They were not. But keeping in mind that these are buildings with heritage value, agencies worked very hard to minimise the impact and tried very hard to conserve the building, knowing that there should be minimal impact and with the commitment to ensuring that with any impact, it would be mitigated. Engineering studies would be put in to see how we can protect the building and, if there is an impact, how we can remove and reinstate it to its authentic appearance.

They then decided in 2008, many, many years ago, to proceed with that conservation measure. What they could have done back then, if you go back in time, is maybe: do not conserve. Affected, so do not conserve. Is it the right decision? Not sure. Or partially conserved: this part affected, so we conserve the rest of the units. Not sure if this is the right decision. Fully conserve? Knowing that we do our best to minimise the impact and, if there is impact, what acceptable conservation measures can be undertaken in tandem with the community and conservation experts whom we are working with, in my view, from the heritage point of view, I would think it is the best of the three options.

The Member asked about cultural impact assessment embodying various strands of impact on the environment, community, heritage. This is something we need to study carefully. Certainly, for heritage impact, we begin the process which is currently an internal deliberative process that involves also reaching out to the community, especially the heritage community. We are going to begin with the heritage surveys which were announced. I think we need to work out on that, we need to work with the various heritage groups and let it work first. Then, downstream, let us have a closer look.

The second question the Member asked was whether the heritage community like Heritage Society Singapore can be involved further upstream. This is something we need to strike a right balance on because, as Members would know, the projects that LTA undertakes, whether it is underground tunnelling works, whether it is road and infrastructure, there are implications beyond heritage. They are important but they also impact people's businesses, homes, public amenities, parks and greenery. We need to do work from conception to a certain level of certainty before we then engage the community. But certainly, working upstream, as far as possible, is a better outcome.