쌍용건설

Part III. Smart, Multi-Product Construction - ① Ssangyong E&C

Entrusted with the most technically-challenging sector of the entire line
Immense technical challenges posed by existing roads and waterways
Made the headlines as the “￦700 million per meter” project

16.7 million accident-free man-hours as of May
A globally unprecedented record
Safety award from Singapore’s Land Transportation Authority

The construction market in Singapore is where competition amongst major constructors from around the world, including those from South Korea, is at its fiercest. The main reason for this is that the Singaporean government values sensible construction plans and architectural creativity more than simply the lowest bid. Therefore, constructors competing in this market need to be technically competent and creative, and today Ssangyong E&C leads the way Singapore’s ultra-competitive construction market with its unmatched and unchallenged expertise in constructing mega buildings, mega hotels, roads, harbors, and subway infrastructure. With the DTL 921 project, which transverses through the heart of the city, Ssangyong E&C has even rewritten the history of subways by setting a new safety record.

The DTL 921 site saw zero safety accidents over its entire 73-month span from June 2009 to July 2015 and, for its achievement, was awarded the 15 Million Accident-Free Man-Hours certificate from Singapore’s Land Transportation Authority (LTA). 15 million accident-free man-hours is a record no other constructor, anywhere in the world, has been able to achieve in a subway project. To put this into perspective, 15 million accident-free man-hours is equivalent to a crew of 100 workers working 8 hours a day for more than 51 years (18,750 days) straight without making a single safety-related mistake. DTL 921 site has done even and recorded its 16.7 millionth accident-free man-hour in May 2016.

"Singapore is notorious for just how closely construction projects are scrutinized by the authorities, and before us the accident-free man-hour record for a subway project in Singapore was just 7 million. What we did is, in essence, annihilate Singapore’s old record and set a new world record in a metro subway project, which everyone agrees is the most challenging type of a construction project,” said a representative from Ssangyong E&C.

The DTL 921 site is the largest of the ten sectors making up the DTL Phase II project and was commissioned exclusively to Ssangyong E&C in 2009 in a contract worth approximately ￦700 billion. This contract, which was of the design-and-build variety, is still the largest overseas railway or subway contract won by a domestic constructor in South Korea’s forty-year history of undertaking construction projects overseas.

The technical challenges the DTL 921 project posed were immense. The task was to build a 1,065m-long subway section linking Little India and Bugis in the heart of Singapore and two new subway stations underneath a complex network of roads and the 25m-wide Rochor Canal on the surface above and below the existing North-East Line just 5m above.

As if this weren’t challenging enough, the project also required the construction of a 167m-long box tunnel deep within the soft foundation in the area for a ten-lane underground road that will be built at a later date. Although the the sector is only 1 km long, overcoming all the technical challenges and meeting the project objectives required the use of the latest and the most advanced construction technologies and the rerouting of traffic on the surface on more than fifty occasions. This explains the enormous cost of the project and why the deal made the headlines as the “￦700 million per meter” contract at the time of its signing.

Ssangyong E&C proposed to utilize an unprecedented combination of subway-construction techniques and even to reroute the Rochor Canal permanently to the north to help stabilize the weak foundation in the area. Although the construction cost rose by more than US$100 million than initially planned, Ssangyong E&C surpassed all its competitors and won the contract.

The DTL 921 site received a total of thirteen safety-related awards to date and beat major competitors from around the world to claim the Champion title at LTA’s 2013 Annual Safety Award Convention. Ssangyong E&C is today the absolute leader in Singapore’s construction market. The South Korean company is behind a total of 37 construction and engineering projects in Singapore, including Singapore Indoor Stadium, Raffles Hotel (remodeling), Suntec City Complex, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, and Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and has risen as the greatest construction company operating in Singapore.

"Since making our first entry into the Singaporean market in 1980, we have competed shoulder-to-shoulder with global construction companies and built many of Singapore’s landmarks and notable structures. We were able to do this by maintaining the trust of our clients and delivering high-quality results through the use of our advanced construction expertise,” said a representative from Ssangyong E&C.

Reporter Kim Sun-hwan soon@munhwa.com