By Geraldine Yeo and Koh Hui Theng

CHOP the trees before they fall. That was the idea.

Two angsana trees that were planted in front of Liat Towers at Orchard Road 30 to 35 years ago were given the chop by the National Parks Board (NParks) around 8am yesterday.

The felling took more than 12 hours. The trees, which were located in front of retail shops Zara and Hermes, were both about 20m tall.

The move comes five days after more than 200 sandbags were placed in front of Liat Towers to protect the building from flash floods.

NParks said the two trees had shown signs of decay after a routine tree inspection, and this was confirmed after a detailed inspection using a decay detection drill.

Mr Simon Longman, NParks' director of streetscape, said: "For safety, we have decided to remove the two trees as they are in an area where there is heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic."

Last week, there have been two reported incidents of trees being uprooted and crushing vehicles - one on Ang Mo Kio Street 22 and the other on Yio Chu Kang Road.

In the latter instance, projects manager Chua Loong Wai, 32, was crushed to death by a falling tree that landed on his moving car last Tuesday afternoon.

Liat Towers building supervisor Chik Hai Lam said the management was taken by surprise yesterday morning when a group of workers from NParks showed up in a lorry with tools to fell the trees.

Mr Chik had no complaints about the precautionary measures.

"It is a good thing that they are cutting down the trees, there are too many of them here," he said.

"The tree has been slanted for some time and may pose a hazard if it falls."

Last week, Mr Longman said NParks had been carrying out a "very rigorous and systematic" tree care programme with regular inspections for signs of poor health, disease, pests or structural defects since the 1980s.

High-tech equipment

The Straits Times quoted him as saying that trees may be checked with high-tech equipment if necessary.

When The New Paper later asked NParks if the two trees that fell last week had been checked with high-tech equipment, Mr Longman said the equipment is used for "second-level inspection checks".

"Such equipment is used when the detailed external visual inspection gives rise to concern that there may be internal defects and we need to confirm the condition of the tree," he added.

"For these trees, that particular need did not arise. The reason for the uprooting of both trees is the adverse weather conditions."

NParks will continue to "intensify our maintenance regime of inspecting and pruning of mature trees where vehicular traffic is high", Mr Longman said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.