SINGAPORE — The Lornie Highway, a new dual four-lane road that connects MacRitchie Viaduct to Adam Flyover, will open progressively from the third quarter of 2018, about nine months behind schedule.

In a news release on Tuesday (Nov 14), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the new highway will open in two phases, with the southbound highway towards Adam Flyover operating first.

This will be followed by the northbound highway towards MacRitchie Viaduct that will open in the third quarter of 2019.

The LTA said the project was planned to be completed by the end of this year. However, a revised construction schedule, as well as the financial restructuring of its main contractor for the project, had affected the project’s completion.

Public exhumation of graves at the Bukit Brown cemetery to facilitate the construction of the highway had initially delayed the construction schedule, the LTA said.

The statutory board had extended the deadline for the exhumation by a year, from 2013 to 2014 until after the Qing Ming festival, as only a small number of graves were claimed by the next-of-kin.

In addition, the LTA said that its main contractor for the project — Swee Hong Limited — had also faced financial difficulties in 2014.

Swee Hong Limited was earlier awarded the design and build tender for the project in August 2013 for the “construction of a vehicular bridge spanning over the existing creeks and hillocks of Bukit Brown, and three vehicular underpasses located at the junctions of Lornie Road/Sime Road and Andrew Road/Lornie Road”.

The company was also contracted to convert the existing Lornie Road to a dual two-lane road, as well as implementing active mobility infrastructure such as park connectors and wider footpaths.

The LTA said Swee Hong Limited had first informed them of its financial situation in October 2014 and had obtained a court order in February 2015 to “propose a Scheme of Arrangement to implement a debt restructuring plan”, which allowed the pace of work to continue.

“As Swee Hong had been upfront about its situation, presented a sound recovery plan, and took all the necessary steps to restructure financially, LTA decided to retain the contractor on good faith,” the LTA said.

“LTA also took into consideration that the contractor had, with the support of many local subcontractors and suppliers, kept works going safely albeit at a slower pace as they underwent restructuring.”

The LTA added that terminating its contract with Swee Hong Limited and calling for another tender would have led to “further delay, loss of public monies and also negatively impact the local subcontractors and suppliers” engaged by the company.

The construction company has since fully paid off its debt in July 2017, and the Scheme of Arrangement has since come to an end.

It is on track to complete the project by the first-quarter of 2019.

The LTA added that it is closely monitoring the works onsite to ensure that the contractor meets the project’s revised completion timeline safely, and in a manner that meets construction standards.