GS, Samsung win subway project orders in Singapore

GS Engineering & Construction and Samsung C&T Corp. have won orders to build subway stations in Singapore. Both companies have won 14 subway projects in Singapore, seeking breakthroughs in the Singaporean construction market, while Korean construction companies are struggling in the Middle East.

GS Engineering & Construction said Tuesday that it signed a contract Monday for 1.47-billion-dollar "T301" project to build public transportation vehicle site. The project, awarded by Singapore's Land Transport Authority, is a 320,000-square-meter subway, bus and car base located nearby Changi International Airport. It is the biggest project awarded by the authority so far.

The work is also the world's first "vertical vehicle base." Different from a normal single layered base, the prospective project will be built into a multi facility with an underground subway base that goes down two stories and a four-story bus base from ground. GS will also build a 1.45-kilometer-tunnel along with the vehicle base, all by 2024.

"We have successfully completed various subway projects for the Singaporean government, which has acknowledged our construction competence," GS Engineering & Construction CEO Lim Byung-yong said. "We will more actively advance into this market and raise the status of Korean construction."

Samsung C&T Corp. also announced it received an order for a project to build a subway station at Singapore's Thomson Line T313 section. The Land Transport Authority of Singapore awarded the project at 610 million dollars. Samsung will start work at the end of this month and build subway a station and a 1,200-kilometer underground tunnel that passes through Xilin in southeastern part of Singapore. Construction will be completed by 2024.

The T313 section where a stream flows over the tunnel is a very tricky section for construction. Water currents should be removed and many circular railway tracks have to be built. "We pushed for a safety-first strategy, which seems to have won the authority's heart," a Samsung C&T source said.

Samsung has won orders to build seven subways and two underground expressways in Singapore, winning high trust by the local government during this process. GS has also won 3.2 trillion won (2.76 billion dollars) worth of orders to build subways in Singapore.

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