voiddeck.com

KPE was fully opened last Saturday and I got a chance to try it on Sunday. Reality really sank in yesterday though as I took the TPE > KPE > ECP route leaving home at 8am which is the norm for me and wifey. Usually we will crawl along TPE till Pasir Ris then drive through ECP and suffer more start-stop traffic and reach the office at about 9am. That is 30km worth of ’shit traffic’ for one hour. Amazing way to start each morning I tell you!

So we left home at 8am or so on Monday with expectation that KPE will be chock full of vehicles but no - it was really quite empty and best of all, the entire trip took us only about 10 minutes or so for the tunnel itself, perhaps 20 minutes in all from Punggol to Shenton Way. Wow.

BUT.

Of course there is a “but”.

Firstly 70kmph is just so draggy. Yes I am sure safety is a good reason to prevent accidents in a long tunnel but still given the lack of use (for now) and an active traffic monitoring system perhaps that limit can be increased to 80kmph when there are lesser vehicles in there. 70kmph is still something I can tahan over start stop traffic but a little more would be better. And oh I am really wishing the RAV4 has cruise control… if I continue to stay in Punggol perhaps it’s time to get a new ride.. ahem.

The other observation is that the roads don’t seem to be well surfaced. It is quite a bumpy ride so it just makes me wonder if KPE was a rush job.

All in all mostly good and it is a real boon for NE residents over a 90 degrees course to the city via TPE/CTE or a big detour via TPE/ECP.

Related:

http://kpe.sg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_further_tunnels_by_length#Road