Marina Coastal Expressway to open to Dec 29

It has five lanes in each direction and a 420m stretch running under the seabed. And it will open to traffic on Dec 29 at 9am.

The 5km-long Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) will be Singapore's 10th expressway and will connect the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and the East Coast Parkway (ECP) in the east to the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) in the west.

A 3.6km section of the MCE is built as a tunnel, including the 420m stretch underneath the seabed just south of the Marina Barrage.

Costing some $4.3 billion, the project started four years ago and hugs the coastline. Part of the MCE is built on reclaimed land.

MCE will link motorists directly to the heart of the downtown at Marina South through the new connections with Central Boulevard, Marina Boulevard and Maxwell Road, said the Land Transport Authority yesterday.

Once the MCE is open, traffic that is now using the ECP will be channelled to the MCE and the stretch of the ECP west of Benjamin Sheares Bridge will be converted to a major arterial road.

A new arterial road, Sheares Avenue, will take traffic from the ECP directly into the CBD and connect with Central Boulevard and Marina Boulevard.

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