Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE)

What to Know About Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE)

BKE, completed in the middle of the 1980s, links PIE and Woodlands by traveling north to south. It immediately connects to the Woodlands Causeway at its northernmost point. The Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) connects to three additional expressways throughout its 11-kilometer journey in SLE, KJE, and PIE.

History

The highway gets built when bids for the project get announced on May 22, 1982. The Pan-Island Expressway was completed in two parts, the first from Woodlands to Mandai Road and the second from Mandai Road to it, beginning in 1983. Explosives were employed to clear the Bukit Timah region, through which the second part of the highway ran, for construction since the terrain was steep. Bukit Panjang Road, a new road, was opened from Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) to Woodlands Road during development, and new interchanges get also created at Mandai Road and Woodlands Road. Jalan Kwok Min, Lorong Kingkit, and Lorong Garpu were among the Kampong roads that were destroyed. The little portion of Jalan Kwok Min is still there, and the Singapore Armed Forces have controlled the neighborhood since 1997. In December 1985, it first opened.

BKE, at around 10 km, was Singapore’s shortest expressway before the Kranji Expressway completion (6.2 mi). There are three lanes on either side of this six-lane, dual-carriageway highway. The LTA began constructing an eight-lane dual carriageway with four lanes on either side of the expressway in2003, extending it from the intersection with the Kranji Expressway to the junction with the Seletar Expressway. This construction gets finished in the middle of 2005.

Interchanges

There are eight vehicle interchanges along the expressway: the Chantek, Dairy Farm, Zhenghua, Gali Batu, Mandai, Woodlands South, Woodlands Flyovers, and Woodlands Checkpoint Viaduct. Additionally, it has two road underpasses, the Eco-Link@BKE, the North-South Line, the Rifle Range Flyover, the Chestnut Avenue Underpass, and the Jalan Kwok Min Underpass, all of which span the highway.

Security Services

This highway is close to two police stations: the Bukit Panjang Neighbourhood Police Center and The Woodlands Neighbourhood Police Center, both located in Bukit Panjang. The Woodlands Health Campus in Woodlands (U/C) is the only public hospital close to this road.

Eco-Link@BKE

In Singapore, the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve get linked by an ecological bridge called the Eco-Link@BKE. The Bukit Timah Expressway gets crossed by the Eco-Link, which is 75 meters (246 feet) long (BKE). The hourglass-shaped bridge is just 50 meters (160 feet) wide at its narrowest point. The Eco-Link, which opened in 2012, is the first ecological bridge in the Asia-Pacific region. In Singapore, attempts to conserve wildlife get aided through the Eco-Link@BKE.

Animal Usage of Eco-Link@BKE

The Raffles Banded Langur’s range has been able to return Bukit Timah thanks to the Eco-Link. Numerous animal species get spotted utilizing the Eco-Link to travel between reserves since it gets finished. A few of these include the Sunda pangolin, common palm civet, long-tailed macaque, slender squirrel, glossy horseshoe bat, Smaller Asiatic yellow bat, pouched tomb bat, blue-eared kingfisher, and emerald dove. In Bukit Timah, a smaller mouse deer gets spotted in 2016.