Tai Seng Facility Building

Tai Seng Facility Building
Surface Building
Surface Building as seen from Bartley Viaduct
Location 101 Bartley Road East, Singapore 533951
Lines Served   Downtown Line
Operator SBS Transit
Type Underground
Rolling Stock C951/C951A
Opened 2013

Tai Seng Facility Building (TSFB) is an underground MRT maintenance facility serving the Downtown Line (DTL). Located east of the existing Kim Chuan Depot and future Kim Chuan Depot Extension, the underground facility houses basic maintenance, operation and staff facilities for DTL3, and can be considered to be a small extension of Kim Chuan Depot itself.

The underground structure is 295 metres long, 52 metres wide and approximately 20 metres deep, covering two underground floors. The south edge of TSFB runs parallel to Bartley Road East, in between the junctions with Kim Chuan Road and Airport Road. A single reception track from Kim Chuan Depot leads to the TSFB.

The surface structure of TSFB was designed by cgnArchitects. Located along Bartley Road East, it was designed with a highly compact and efficient layout to minimize construction cost, while meeting technical and operational requirements of the authorities. It occupies a plot of land significantly smaller than the underground facility itself.

Construction

Construction began in November 2010 and was targeted for completion in March 2013, several months ahead of the commencement of service along the Downtown Line Stage 1 (between Bugis and Chinatown). C951 trains, which arrived at Kim Chuan Depot as early as November 2012, were stabled there until the completion of the TSFB.

Contract 937B for the Design, Construction and Completion of Tai Seng Facility Building was awarded to Singapore Piling & Civil Engineering Pte Ltd at a contract sum of S$81.5 million in June 2010. The contract includes a short section of track that leads west from TSFB, and up to the east end of Kim Chuan Depot. Reception tracks heading from TSFB to Ubi and Bedok North stations were constructed by Nishimatsu under Contract 929A.

Downtown Line 1 use

When the Downtown Line (Stage 1) between Bugis and Chinatown opened in December 2013, TSFB was put into operational use for the maintenance and stabling of Downtown Line trains. As reception tracks east of TSFB (which were part of DTL Stage 3) had not been constructed yet, DTL trains made use of CCL tracks between Kim Chuan Depot and Bayfront. However, due to the incompatibility of signalling equipment installed on both lines, DTL trains had to be towed by locomotive between TSFB and Bayfront, a process that only took place during engineering hours at night. Light maintenance work was instead carried out at the Marina Bay Temporary Maintenance Facility, which was an additional siding at Marina Bay station purposed for maintenance work.

The use of TSFB and MBTMF were discontinued after the opening of the Downtown Line (Stage 2), where Gali Batu Depot became the main depot for Downtown Line trains.

Downtown Line 3 use

Following the completion of Downtown Line (Stage 3) and its associated reception tracks in 2017, TSFB returned to operational use. It operates independently from Kim Chuan Depot (KCD)

Rolling stock:

Tai Seng Facility Building maintains C951 trains for the Downtown Line.


Gallery:


External Links & References:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *