Upper Serangoon tender period extended amid new construction requirements

SINGAPORE — The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is extending the tender period for a land parcel at Upper Serangoon Road by two weeks until Nov 27, in order to allow potential bidders to take into account new construction requirements coming into effect this month.

Introduced by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) on Nov 1 to improve the industry’s capabilities and productivity, the new requirements include higher minimum Buildable Design and Constructability standards, more use of prefabricated components, and adopting high-impact productive technologies at Government Land Sales (GLS) projects.

Buildable Design and Constructability standards rate construction projects by reliance on labour and efficiency of construction techniques. Before Nov 1, the required scores were already increased in September last year, as the government continues to push for greater productivity growth in the construction sector.

As part of that effort, the government is also mandating a greater use of pre-built building components and modules — ranging from dry walls to entire bathroom units — to cut down labour required on-site.

To that end, the government has imposed on Nov 1 the adoption of Prefabricated Pre-finished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) on selected GLS sites. Currently, two upcoming sites — at Yishun Avenue 4 and Jurong West Street 41 — have been selected for the adoption of PPVC.

These measures and requirements were first highlighted by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam during his Budget speech early this year. Last week, Mr Tharman also unveiled a slew of new rules to help the industry grow and retain experienced workers.

These include a requirement for construction firms to upgrade 10 per cent of their basic skilled (R2) work permit holders to R1 status within the next two years. But greater flexibility is also given for companies to hire workers and upgrade them.