East Coast Parkway



The East Coast Parkway (Abbreviation: ECP) is an expressway that runs along the southeastern coast of Singapore. The expressway is approximately 20 km in length, and connects Singapore Changi Airport, in the east, to the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, in the south of the main island. It also connects to the Marina Coastal Expressway and has an interchange with the Pan Island Expressway at the Changi Flyover, about 1 km from the eastern end of the expressway.

Unlike other expressways in Singapore whose abbreviation ends with 'E' for 'Expressway', the East Coast Parkway abbreviation ends with 'P' instead.

The East Coast Parkway used to be directly connected to the AYE. However, with the opening of the MCE on December 29 2013, a section of expressway after the Benjamin Sheares Bridge was truncated and another section at the Marina South area realigned and converted into an arterial road.

Bus 36 is the only service to use almost all of the expressway as part of its route. Prior to that, bus 390 (withdrawn in 1993) and express shuttle 12 (only operating during MRT closures) were using the full expressway from Rochor Road to Changi Airport.

History
Plans for the coastal highway reducing congestion at Golden Mile started on 30 July 1969. Detailed plans were put in place to create interchanges at Nicoll Highway, Bras Basah Road and Stamford Road. On 3 September 1970, there was a $35 million plan to reclaim more land off of Bedok. On 7 October 1970, the final phase of the $35 million land reclamation plan began. On 18 December 1970, the government planned to reclaim more than 125 acres of land.

On 24 May 1973, the government decided to build a $300 million highway across the harbour to the breakwater line outside Clifford Pier to ease peak hour congestion at the Collyer Quay area. The plans involved the reclamation of land off Nicoll Highway and the breakwater at Clifford Pier. Reclamation was expected to begin in six to nine months. The 280m long bridge was to be built at a height of 30ft above high water level to allow ample headroom for ferries to use the channel. The new highway would turn landwards to South Quay and then to the vacant piece of land past the Singapore Polytechnic, before turning to the Anson Road. The government needed to acquire the former Singapore Polytechnic land in 1975 and they did so by shifting the polytechnic to Dover to allow space for construction work. Plans were made on 16 January 1974 to extend Siglap Road to East Coast Parkway. On 28 February 1974, the government also acquired two portions of land, for the extension of Bedok South Avenue 1 from Upper East Coast Road to ECP.

On 12 June 1974, tenders were invited for the construction of the super-highway which would link the east coast of Singapore to the city. The extension of East Coast Parkway was to run from Tanjong Rhu via Kallang River before terminating at Marina Centre. Between the two crossings, the expressway would be connected to an interchange formed by a one-way pair of roads running on the reclaimed Marina Centre, connecting Ophir and Rochor Roads at Beach Road. It would take traffic to Orchard, Chinatown and Little India. It would also run through the reclaimed land in front of Shenton Way and Raffles Quay, before going to the Telok Ayer Basin at South Quay, where it would connect to the one-way pair of roads at Prince Edward Road and Maxwell Road. It was planned to run on the elevated structure across the former Singapore Polytechnic at Shenton Way. A separate project was planned to even extend the expressway to Keppel Road, before going towards the Jurong Expressway (to be known as Ayer Rajah Expressway).

On 24 April 1975, five international firms were invited to the tender of the construction of East Coast Parkway, leading to the construction of Benjamin Sheares Bridge. The expressway would also be linked to Ophir/Rochor Road, which would be built together with the flyover. The first phase would cover the portion from Tanjong Rhu Flyover to South Quay, whereas another section would lead from South Quay to Shenton Way.

Construction of the first phase of the East Coast Parkway from Fort Road to Marine Parade started in 1971 and was completed in December 1975. It was followed by an extension of Phase 2 which was completed in November 1975 to Bedok South Road and then Phase 3 was built together with Changi Airport in 1980. Construction of Phase 3 began on May 1976 and would have two interchanges at Xilin Avenue and the Pan Island Expressway. It was expected to be completed by 1978. They were built on reclaimed land by the former Public Works Department.

Construction of Phase 4, stretching from Fort Road to Keppel Road began in 1977 and was opened on 18 April 1981 to Ophir Road, and on 26 September 1981 towards Keppel Road. Shipyards had certain hours of restriction to navigation but the berths down should have no cause to worry. They could implement any expansion programme of their shipyards, which was awarded to Sato Kogyo, and was expected to be completed by the end of 1980. The government had decided to further reclaim the Marina South area, linking Tanjong Rhu and Telok Ayer Basin.

Traffic lights remained on the expressway until the completion of the last flyover at Fort Road in 1989. The opening of ECP relieved the traffic load of the city area in the 1980s. Traffic volume at Nicoll Highway was lowered by 20 per cent, which would otherwise worsen with the new ERP gantries. Robinson Road and Cecil Street were better managed with lesser traffic jams with the declining load all the way to 1990s.

Flanked by East Coast Park on one side and high-rise housing on the other, the well-landscaped expressway was built and maintained with the conscious intention of giving visitors arriving via Singapore Changi Airport a good first impression of the country as they commute from the airport to the city centre in less than 15 minutes on a good day.

Traffic congestion during the morning peak hours, however, led to the introduction of an Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry near the Tanjong Rhu Flyover in the direction towards the city, one of the first two gantries to be set up in the country, which came into operation on 1 April 1998 together with the other gantry at Ophir Road.

A decommissioned emergency highway strip was built in the long, straight section of the ECP close to Changi Airport. This section can be easily identified by removable potted plants instead of the standard large trees on the median strip. However, the highway strip has never been used for emergency landing purposes.

To facilitate the development of the new downtown, the ECP was truncated after the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, with the stretch at Marina South area realigned and converted to a major arterial road called Sheares Avenue. A new expressway, the Marina Coastal Expressway, connects the ECP and the Kallang–Paya Lebar Expressway to the Ayer Rajah Expressway and is built along the coast of Marina South. This resulted in the removal of Exit 17 (Central Blvd, Marina South & Bayfront Ave) heading eastbound and Exits 17A( Marina Place, Marina South, Central Blvd & Bayfront Ave), 17 (Prince Edward Road) and 18 (Keppel Road) heading westbound.

List of exits
Junctions in bold signify that the junction and its associated ramps and interchange have been demolished, decommissioned or closed permanently.