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Excuse the pun. I just had to do it.

In Singapore, we drive on the left side of the road. As such, people use the right lanes for overtaking, and so, it is natural for expressway exits to branch out from the left-most lane on the highway, so that cars on the right lanes can continue on their journey without let. However, not every expressway exit in Singapore branches from the left lane. There is still one left that has the exit on the right. I present to you:

Having previously lived in the vicinity after the exit, I am familiar with this road. For people unfamiliar though, this must certainly be a source of momentary confusion. There are so many problems with this design.

The main problem with this layout is that all the buses and trucks which need to use that exit have to filter from left side of the expressway all the way to the right. This is a safety hazard for the road users. This is particularly challenging for the trucks and buses (they also not allowed to exceed certain speeds) because they normally have a nice exit on the left to just follow. It certainly isn’t the case here.

Moreover, it certainly doesn’t help that the right lane will have many speeding motorists. It is quite common for there to be cars which travel around 100-110 km/h in this region. Imagine having to change your lane and/or halve your speed for buses which are filtering lanes to get to this exit.

What a mess.

As such, the LTA has decided to do something about this situation and made the following announcement last April:

“The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded a contract to Megastone Holdings Pte Ltd for the construction of a vehicular underpass at PIE. The new underpass will replace the existing PIE Exit 26A leading towards Clementi Road.

When completed, motorists will be able to exit the expressway via the left lane leading towards Clementi Road, improving overall traffic flow for this stretch of the PIE. As part of the works, part of Hua Guan Avenue will be realigned and widened to a standard dual-1 lane road.

Works are expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018 and scheduled to complete in the fourth quarter of 2021.“

In order to have an exit on the left at this region, there will need to be an underpass. See this map for a clearer view of how this is exactly going to play out.

Yours faithfully,
Nicholas Loh
26 February 2019

References
1. https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=1&id=86418817-f460-46dc-968e-899406316b2d
2. https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/at2u5e/last_right_side_expressway_exit_in_sg/