The planned landscape and infrastructural enhancements to Orchard Road has commenced - 

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has appointed, Expand Construction Pte Ltd as the main contractor of the works for the 10-month project that is expected to complete in February 2009, ahead of the earlier announced date of April 2009.

The S$40 million project to enhance the pedestrian experience at Singapore's premier shopping street will include state-of-the-art lighting to highlight Orchard Road's lush tree-lined boulevard, new creative spaces for staging events and a more integrated and engaging pedestrian mall.

Since the announcement of the works in October 2007, the STB has been finalising details of the work schedule and engaging various Orchard Road stakeholders including industry associations such as the Orchard Road Business Association, Singapore Retailers Association and building owners to understand their operational concerns and minimise disruption to their businesses, ensuring that shoppers will continue to have an enjoyable time on their favourite shopping street.

Event organisers can continue to hold their events at various locations along Orchard Road, subject to location availability. Signature events such as the Great Singapore Shopping Challenge which is held during the Great Singapore Sale, Singapore Fashion Festival and Christmas In The Tropics will continue to be held there too.

"Our priority in planning the works schedule was to ensure that businesses along Orchard Road would be able to continue their operations with minimal disruption so that shoppers in the malls would not even realise that works are on-going at street level," said Mr Andrew Phua, Director of Cluster Development (Tourism Shopping and Dining), Singapore Tourism Board.

With Orchard Road consistently ranked the most-visited attraction in Singapore, attracting more than seven million visitors each year with thousands of local residents visiting for leisure and work everyday, he added that some inconvenience is only to be expected at times during the enhancement period.

"These works will be completed in less than a year. When completed, locals and visitors will enjoy a much enhanced street level experience when they stroll along Orchard Road. Shopping is one of our key tourism pillars and together with the introduction of international shopping brands plus the opening of new malls such as ION Orchard, Orchard Central and Somerset Central by next year, we expect the pedestrian mall enhancement works to provide shoppers with an improved shopping experience and transform it into one of the world's greatest shopping streets."  

Seven work teams will be deployed simultaneously to work on a pocket area or sub-zone in the three designated Tanglin, Orchard and Somerset zones, which will each sport its own signature theme.  

Generally, each sub-zone is the pedestrian area fronting a building development with the average sub-zone measuring about 120 metres. Only upon completion of the works within the sub-zone will the work team move on to work on another area of the zone.

This will not only ensures that a large part of Orchard Road will continue to be functional to businesses and accessible to the public, but it also means that building owners and tenants will be affected for an average of only nine to ten weeks out of the entire 10-month pedestrian mall enhancement process (Please refer to Annex A for a typical enhancement work sequence).  

During this time, the STB will continue to regularly engage Orchard Road stakeholders via regular electronic newsletters, and meetings and stakeholder briefings, when necessary. Besides putting in place all necessary safety measures for the project, Expand Construction Pte Ltd has also set up a 24-hour public hotline 1800-382-0890 to address any queries by stakeholders and members of the public.