Faulty trailer causes oil spill in CTE tunnel
05 Feb 2015|2,393 views
A broken down trailer left yet another oil spill on Singapore's roads yesterday. This time, the spill was at an exit on the Central Expressway (CTE), bringing traffic to a near standstill for hours, reported The Straits Times.
The incident, at around 1:00pm, necessitated the temporary closure of the Chin Swee tunnel, the Merchant Road entrance and the Havelock Road exit on the CTE in the direction of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE). No one was injured and no cars were known to have been damaged in the incident.
It was more than two hours before the tunnel was closed at 3:30pm. The tunnel reopened in stages from just before 6:00pm, to accommodate rush hour traffic, till about 8:50pm.
The incident is the third oil spill to have brought traffic on an expressway to a crawl in three weeks.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it dispatched two fire engines when it was alerted to the spillage at 1:03pm. Once the tunnel was closed, it began clean-up operations using two water jets and a solvent used to break down oil particles.
National Environment Agency (NEA) officers helped in the clean-up. "A water-based biodegradable dispersant was applied to the affected area, and SCDF proceeded to wash the area," said a spokesman.
"After two rounds of washing, the diesel could not be completely washed off the road surface. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) subsequently decided to resurface the affected parts of the road."
An LTA spokesman said preliminary investigation showed the spill was caused by a trailer, which had broken down because of a mechanical fault.
A broken down trailer left yet another oil spill on Singapore's roads yesterday. This time, the spill was at an exit on the Central Expressway (CTE), bringing traffic to a near standstill for hours, reported The Straits Times.
The incident, at around 1:00pm, necessitated the temporary closure of the Chin Swee tunnel, the Merchant Road entrance and the Havelock Road exit on the CTE in the direction of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE). No one was injured and no cars were known to have been damaged in the incident.
It was more than two hours before the tunnel was closed at 3:30pm. The tunnel reopened in stages from just before 6:00pm, to accommodate rush hour traffic, till about 8:50pm.
The incident is the third oil spill to have brought traffic on an expressway to a crawl in three weeks.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it dispatched two fire engines when it was alerted to the spillage at 1:03pm. Once the tunnel was closed, it began clean-up operations using two water jets and a solvent used to break down oil particles.
National Environment Agency (NEA) officers helped in the clean-up. "A water-based biodegradable dispersant was applied to the affected area, and SCDF proceeded to wash the area," said a spokesman.
"After two rounds of washing, the diesel could not be completely washed off the road surface. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) subsequently decided to resurface the affected parts of the road."
An LTA spokesman said preliminary investigation showed the spill was caused by a trailer, which had broken down because of a mechanical fault.
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