Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Better Planning for Road Closures to Prevent Disruption to Essential and Safety Services by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question:

Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling : To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether the Police, Traffic Police or other Government agencies were consulted when Ironman Asia planned the road closures for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2017; (b) if so, whether these agencies provided adequate advice on how the road closures will affect emergency services; and (c) whether future road closures for similar events can be better managed to prevent disruption to essential and safety services.

Answer:

1. The Traffic Police (TP) and Land Transport Authority (LTA) evaluate applications for road closures very carefully. Apart from the safety and security of the participants of the event, another key consideration is that emergency services such as hospitals must remain accessible. Also, road users and members of the local community, such as residents and business-owners, should not be overly inconvenienced.  If the potential inconvenience and disruption to emergency services cannot be adequately addressed, the application will be rejected.

2. For the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2017 (SCSM 2017), IronMan Asia, the Event Organiser, submitted an application for road closures. TP and LTA evaluated it in consultation with Sport Singapore (SportSG) and SCDF.

3. As part of the evaluation, the initial proposed road closures were significantly reduced in scale, to minimise the impact to the public, and ensure that establishments such as hospitals remained accessible. LTA also conducted a walk-through with IronMan Asia before the event.

4. Raffles Hospital was consulted by IronMan Asia and agreed to the road closure plans.  In particular, it was agreed that the portion of North Bridge Road between Rochor Road and Ophir Road would be converted into a 2-way road, to allow vehicles to access the hospital via Rochor Road. In the event that emergency vehicles were required to travel within the road closure areas, access would be facilitated by Auxiliary Police outriders, who would escort the emergency vehicles.

5. The road closure permit required IronMan Asia to comply with and execute these approved road closure plans. Arising from public feedback on the traffic management at SCSM 2017, TP, together with LTA and SportSG, are looking into whether IronMan Asia had fulfilled all permit conditions and complied with the road closure plans.