Nicoll Highway MRT Station

CC5
Nicoll Highway
尼诰大道 | நிக்கல் நெடுஞ்சாலை
Station exit A
Address 20 Republic Avenue, Singapore 038970
Line Served   Circle Line
Operator SMRT Trains
Structure Underground
Platform Island
Opened 17 Apr 2010

Nicoll Highway MRT Station (CC5) is an underground station along the Circle Line (CCL). It is built underneath Republic Avenue and located adjacent to Nicoll Highway, serving developments in the Beach Road area and the Marina Promenade park.

The station gets its name from Nicoll Highway, a major arterial road linking the Kallang area to the City. The station is also synonymous with Singapore’s worst civil engineering accident in recent history, when a retaining wall collapsed during construction. The resulting cave-in collapse killed four people and injured three, and delayed the opening of Circle Line Stages 1 and 2.

The current station lies about 100 metres away from the original station underneath Nicoll Highway, which was abandoned after the Nicoll Highway collapse. A detailed write-up is at the bottom of this article.


First / Last Train Timings

Circle Line – (CC5) Nicoll Highway
Destination First Train Last Train
Weekdays & Sat Sun & Public Holidays Daily
CC1 Dhoby Ghaut 5:48am 6:15am 11:57pm
CC29 HarbourFront 5:45am 6:12am 10:56pm
CC26 Pasir Panjang 11:26pm
CC23 one-north 11:42pm
CC17 Caldecott 12:10am
CC11 Tai Seng 12:17am
CE2 Marina Bay 6:12am 6:33am 11:46pm

Station Layout

L2 Overhead Bridge Across Nicoll Highway to Beach Road
L1 Street level Bus stops, Taxi stand, pick-up/drop-off point
B2 Ticket Concourse Faregates, Top Up Kiosks, Passenger Service Centre, Retail Shop
B3 Platform A Circle Line towards CC29NE1 HarbourFront
Platform B Circle Line towards CC1NS24NE6 Dhoby Ghaut
Circle Line
towards CE2NS27TE20 Marina Bay

Platforms

Circle Line (B3):
MRT_rail (2)
Platform A: Circle Line towards CC29NE1 HarbourFront via CC6 Stadium (→)
Platform B:
Circle Line towards CC1NS24NE6 Dhoby Ghaut via CC4DT15 Promenade (←)
Circle Line towards CE2NS27TE20 Marina Bay via CC4DT15 Promenade (←)
MRT_rail (2)

Nicoll Highway station has two platforms in an island platform arrangement.

Concourse

Art in Transit: “Re-claiming the Peripherals” by Khiew Huey Chian

The artwork, inspired by the wild plants of Singapore, comprises various shapes and formations in different shades of grey. Seen by many as insignificant and redundant, these plants played a key role particularly to reclaimed land like Nicoll Highway, forming a layer of cover preventing soil erosion and loss, holding the soil firmly together.


Station Amenities

  • Retail Shops at CCL Concourse Level (B2)
  • Public Toilets at CCL Concourse Level (B2)
  • ATMs & Self-Service Machines
  • Bicycle Racks
  • Top Up Kiosks

Exits

Nicoll Highway MRT station has two exits leading to ground level (A and B), of which Exit A offers barrier-free accessibility for the the disabled. Exit A also connects to an overhead bridge across Nicoll Highway and leads to Beach Road.

Exit Location Nearby
A Nicoll Highway The Plaza, Parkroyal on Beach Road, The Concourse, St. John’s HQ, Golden Mile Tower, Golden Mile Complex, Destination Singapore Beach Road, Sultan Plaza, Textile Centre, City Gate
B Republic Avenue Marina Promenade, Kallang River, Waterways Watch Society

Transport Connections

Nicoll Highway station connects to several bus stops in the vicinity, as well as taxi stands and passenger pick-up points.

Bus

There are two official bus stops linked to Nicoll Highway station.

No. Bus stop Exit Bus Routes
B/s 1 80161 – Nicoll Highway (Opp Nicoll Highway Stn) A 10, 14, 16, 16M, 70, 70M, 196
B/s 2 80169 – Nicoll Highway (Nicoll Highway Stn) A 10, 14, 14A, 16, 16M, 70, 70A, 70M, 196, 196A

Road

Taxi stands and pick-up/drop-off points are located next to Circle Line station exits:

Exit Road Provisions
A Republic Avenue (towards Crawford St) Taxi stand (F21), pick-up/drop-off point
A Java Road (towards Beach Rd) Pick-up/drop-off point

MRT Bus Bridging Service

In the event of a MRT service disruption affecting Nicoll Highway station, MRT Bridging Buses may be activated to ply affected stretches of the Circle Line. In which case, the buses can be boarded from the following bus stops:

Towards Bus stop Exit
Circle Line (CCL Bridging Bus)
CC1NS24NE6 Dhoby Ghaut B/s 2: 80169 – Nicoll Highway (Nicoll Highway Stn) A
CC29NE1 HarbourFront B/s 1: 80161 – Nicoll Highway (Opp Nicoll Highway Stn) A

In addition, passengers can board free regular bus services at Bus Stops 1 & 2 when activated.


Passenger Usage Patterns

As a suburban station serving limited numbers of nearby developments, the station encounters low to moderate demand levels from visitors to various buildings and public parks in the vicinity.

Construction

Circle Line Stage 1 (CCL1) Contract 824 for the design and construction of Nicoll Highway and Stadium stations and tunnels was awarded to Japanese and local companies Nishimatsu-Lum Chang Joint Venture.


Major Incidents

Nicoll Highway Collapse incident

On 20 April 2004, at approximately 3:30 p.m., a temporary retaining wall supporting deep excavation works for the Circle Line tunnels collapsed, resulting in a 30-metre deep cave-in that spread across six lanes of Nicoll Highway. The accident occurred near the Merdeka Bridge and Golden Mile Complex, a short distance away from Nicoll Highway station. It was Singapore’s worst civil engineering accident in recent history.

At the time, tunnels in the vicinity of Nicoll Highway station were constructed with the cut-and-cover method, which required deep excavation into marine clay and retaining walls on both sides to hold the surrounding soil in place. When the retaining walls gave way, the surrounding soil caved in, leaving a collapse zone 150 m wide, 100 m long, and 30 m deep which swallowed up a part of Nicoll Highway. Four people were killed and three were injured. Rescue efforts were called off on 23 April 2004 due to the low chance of survival by that point, and the increasing need to stabilise the ground around the accident site. Nicoll Highway was closed and only re-opened in December 2004 after repair works were completed.

A Committee of Inquiry (COI) was appointed and found the main contractor Nishimatsu Construction Company largely at fault. It had, among other things, failed to heed warnings from instrumentation set up to measure earth movement. A couple of sub-contractors and 13 professionals – including several from the LTA – were named. As a result, three Nishimatsu executives and one former LTA project director were charged in court and fined between $8,000 and $160,000 each. The Japanese company was also fined a maximum of $200,000 under the Factories Act.

The accident resulted in the re-alignment of Nicoll Highway Station and the construction of new tunnels towards Stadium Station to steer clear of the collapse zone. A new station, two-thirds the size from the original, was built roughly 100 metres away from the original site, and the new rail tunnels curve away from the accident site, rejoining the old tunnel just before Stadium station. The new tunnels were bored using tunnel boring machines, and the new station employed a top-down method of construction, as opposed to the cut-and-cover method used to construct the original tunnels and station.

With the new station, plans for a basement level connection to The Concourse building were cancelled, and station exits at Java Road and Parkroyal Hotel were replaced by overhead bridge connections. Plans for a stacked underground interchange (similar to Bayfront MRT Station) were also abandoned, and the replacement Nicoll Highway station would be of a conventional island platform design to speed up reconstruction. Nishimatsu footed the bill of roughly S$300 million for the new station and tunnel re-alignment works, which comprised a small fraction of the company’s worldwide turnover of US$4 billion (S$5.4 billion) to US$5 billion back then. Stricter safety regulations for future MRT construction projects were a direct result of this incident.

The opening date for Circle Line Stages 1 and 2 was also delayed as a result. Initially scheduled to open in Year 2008, the opening was delayed to April 2010, allowing Circle Line Stage 3 between Bartley and Marymount to open for revenue service ahead of Stages 1 and 2 in May 2009.

Nishimatsu Construction Company, which had been involved in tunnelling works in Singapore since 1984, continued to be involved in local construction work after the accident. It was awarded Downtown Line Stage 3 Contract C929A for tunnels between Tai Seng Facility Building and Ubi, Kaki Bukit and Bedok Town Park stations, as well as another contract for the construction of the Gardens by the Bay station for the Thomson-East Coast Line (Stage 3).

Among the deceased, Heng Yeow Pheow was remembered as a hero. The 40-year-old foreman, a Singaporean, had hurried his workers to safety but was trapped when the collapse occurred. He left behind his wife, two young children, his 70-year-old mother and nine siblings, and his body was never recovered.

Nicoll Highway: Diagram of new station and tunnel alignment
Diagram of new station and tunnel alignment, with the old uncompleted structures abandoned or backfilled. The collapse site is shown with the empty arrow label.

The impact of the Nicoll Highway collapse extended to the transport planning area. Promenade (formerly Millenia) and Nicoll Highway stations were to form a paired interchange with a future MRT line, similar to Raffles Place and City Hall, with stacked tunnels in between the two stations. These plans never materialised.

Marina Line alignment

Gallery


External Links & References

2 thoughts on “Nicoll Highway MRT Station

  • 15 June 2017 at 3:58 PM
    Permalink

    Hi there,

    Evening!
    I’m writing on behalf of The Furniture Mall Pte Ltd.

    The Furniture Mall no longer in Beach Rd since 5 years ago. Therefore kindly remove us (The Plaza & Furniture Mall) from signage of EXIT A from Nicoll Highway MRT.

    Appreciate much!

    Regards,
    Ng Ai Shan
    Marketing Executive
    6298 1600 (Ext 816)

    Reply

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