SLE closed for more than 12 hours after chain collision

[Vhtfhwlego]

  On 11/10/2014 at 6:19 AM, Roadrunner2029 said:

By the time you see the signboard too late liao .. long line behind you. Maybe need to walk 500m to ask the last car at nearest exit. Better to avoid the route altogether where possible.

 

 

It was smooth from Junction of Lentor & Yishan ave 1.

Then once reach the 2nd bus-stop, slow traffic ~ stand still.

 

If LTA place 1 signboard at junction, drivers could turn left/right.

If LTA place 1 signboard along lentor, drivers could U-Turn.

What I did was at standstill traffic, I took out phone to check waze.

Saw standstill traffic without any other tips/remarks, I made a U-turn.

 

If I were to remain on the Lentor ave, I don't even know whether I can turn up to SLE or not.

If I can't, then I will regret and curse even more because I'm going to still in traffic till YCK?

 

Closing of highway is bad enough.

Closing of highway for several hours can always deploy a signboard and pick it up after the highway is open.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Vhtfhwlego

[Myxilplix]

That is not the Singapore way.

 

Singapore way is to gabra like zebra when something out of the ordinary happens.

[Vhtfhwlego]

  On 11/10/2014 at 6:59 AM, Roadrunner2029 said:

This I agree. They can dispatch a few TP bikes to direct traffic or place a quick signboard. I have seen how the Taiwanese TP do it, not just accidents but any heavy traffic like our Woodlands Causeway traffic. They also stop people from jumping queue. You drive to Woodlands jam there, normally too late to turn back, and nobody regulate traffic or leave one lane for emergency vehicles like ambulance - 4 lanes become 5 lanes, all jam up.

 

 

Many ways we can learn from the Taiwanese.

- Their TP.

- Their Trains.

- Their girls

[Tohto]

  On 11/10/2014 at 7:17 AM, Vhtfhwlego said:

Many ways we can learn from the Taiwanese.

- Their TP.

- Their Trains.

- Their girls

 

Give you 5 for this

[Mustank]

  On 11/10/2014 at 7:03 AM, Myxilplix said:

That is not the Singapore way.

 

Singapore way is to gabra like zebra when something out of the ordinary happens.

 

[Fibo]

  On 11/10/2014 at 6:34 AM, Kb27 said:

When they (TP/LTA) decide to close SLE, did they warn or prevent eother traffic from joining SLE ?ut

So much so all the traffic skidded to a halt and bunched up at Lentor, like 10-pin bowling.

 

And Lentor just couldn't cope with expressway traffic and then there's the usual traffic lights timing.

It backed up all the way to Yishun.

 

I saw traffic happily entering SLE from Upp Thomson Rd..not knowing the fate that awaits them ahead.

 

They could have block these traffic from entering SLE and causing more congestion, but they didn't appear to know what to do.

 

 

i fully agreed with you! when there is Catastrophe situation like this, there should be more frequent announcement from the radio plus whatever other media. It should include advice what are the roads to avoid, instead of just say 'avoid SLE towards CTE after Lentor flyover'. What i felt should be added in the announcement is more info on the roads affected, whose include thomson, yio chu kang, lentor itself. i was driving from yishun towards downtown... when i finally reached amk/yio chu kang junction, i thought turning left to yck and join cte from there, but yck was jammed too!

 

i only knew what happened when i saw the electronic sign panel but needless to say, it was too late.

 

i felt also, traffic police should be deployed to mend the strategic traffic junction manually, to give the affected roads more time in traffic timing to ease the traffic.

 

i hope LTA is reading this thread and improve their effort in making travelling more smooth - don't treat every day the same day - more annoucements, more details, more smart, in similar situation like this.... CAN?

 

sigh...

[Dark]

  On 11/10/2014 at 6:59 AM, Roadrunner2029 said:

This I agree. They can dispatch a few TP bikes to direct traffic or place a quick signboard. I have seen how the Taiwanese TP do it, not just accidents but any heavy traffic like our Woodlands Causeway traffic. They also stop people from jumping queue. You drive to Woodlands jam there, normally too late to turn back, and nobody regulate traffic or leave one lane for emergency vehicles like ambulance - 4 lanes become 5 lanes, all jam up.

 

 

 

They can only follow protocol and the person who define the protocol can only follow the protocol set by the person higher up and so on.

 

There you see..

[Camrysfa]

  On 11/10/2014 at 1:34 PM, Dark said:

 

They can only follow protocol and the person who define the protocol can only follow the protocol set by the person higher up and so on.

 

There you see..

 

same like Little India riot run out of control . .

[Camrysfa]

Why it takes 12 hours to re-open the expressway?

1. ambulances do their job – 2 hours
   
2. police conduct on site investigation – 3 hours
   
3. tow truck do their job – 1 hour
   
4. road cleanup – 3 hour
   
5. road worthiness decision – ?
   

1 & 2 can do in parallel. Same for 3 & 4.

What else?

[Kb27]

  On 11/10/2014 at 2:48 PM, Camrysfa said:

 

Why it takes 12 hours to re-open the expressway?

1. ambulances do their job – 2 hours
2. police conduct on site investigation – 3 hours
3. tow truck do their job – 1 hour
4. road cleanup – 3 hour
5. road worthiness decision – ?

1 & 2 can do in parallel. Same for 3 & 4.

What else?

 

 

Bcuz they don't prevent traffic from getting there, so everyone takes 1 hr to get through before they can even start work.

Even if you want to give way to ambulance, police, there's no space.

 

[Wind30]

  On 11/10/2014 at 1:31 PM, Fibo said:

i fully agreed with you! when there is Catastrophe situation like this, there should be more frequent announcement from the radio plus whatever other media. It should include advice what are the roads to avoid, instead of just say 'avoid SLE towards CTE after Lentor flyover'. What i felt should be added in the announcement is more info on the roads affected, whose include thomson, yio chu kang, lentor itself. i was driving from yishun towards downtown... when i finally reached amk/yio chu kang junction, i thought turning left to yck and join cte from there, but yck was jammed too!

 

i only knew what happened when i saw the electronic sign panel but needless to say, it was too late.

 

i felt also, traffic police should be deployed to mend the strategic traffic junction manually, to give the affected roads more time in traffic timing to ease the traffic.

 

i hope LTA is reading this thread and improve their effort in making travelling more smooth - don't treat every day the same day - more annoucements, more details, more smart, in similar situation like this.... CAN?

 

sigh...

ya lor i was there at 11am, stupid police just stand at the sle. there was no attempt to improve the traffic flow out of lentor exit....

[cllq]

LTA have to buck up!

[So_nice]

Wait for pple to gif way lor. Emergency services ain't god. They get trapped in such traffic too. But of course most e-ways there are SH which can be used

[Yuan]

  On 11/10/2014 at 1:31 PM, Fibo said:

i fully agreed with you! when there is Catastrophe situation like this, there should be more frequent announcement from the radio plus whatever other media. It should include advice what are the roads to avoid, instead of just say 'avoid SLE towards CTE after Lentor flyover'. What i felt should be added in the announcement is more info on the roads affected, whose include thomson, yio chu kang, lentor itself. i was driving from yishun towards downtown... when i finally reached amk/yio chu kang junction, i thought turning left to yck and join cte from there, but yck was jammed too!

 

i only knew what happened when i saw the electronic sign panel but needless to say, it was too late.

 

i felt also, traffic police should be deployed to mend the strategic traffic junction manually, to give the affected roads more time in traffic timing to ease the traffic.

 

i hope LTA is reading this thread and improve their effort in making travelling more smooth - don't treat every day the same day - more annoucements, more details, more smart, in similar situation like this.... CAN?

 

sigh...

 

I agree with you on the part where more announcements of any road closure or any situation on the roads should be brought to public (especially road users') attention as soon as possible.

[Philipkee]

I would like to add something that I read. Forgot the book so I will make up a bit of what I read.

 

It was in the late 1930s. In France, as the Allied army prepared for a possible invasion by the Germans, the Allies had a massive army exercise to test out their war plans. After the exercise, the commanders came together and gave their feedback.

 

British General: I noticed that the Ardennes is unguarded. If the Germans came through there, we would be totally outflanked.

Frence General: Do not worry. If the Germans punch through the Ardennes, our grand strategic reserve will repel them.

 

The matter was left at that.

 

Months later, the Germans invaded through the Ardennes

 

British General: All right, release the Grand strategic reserve

French General (pale faced): There is no Grand strategic reserve......

 

Now, do you not think that our situation is like this....

 

We have many plans. So called back ups. Redundancies. But in the recent cases like the Little India Riots, do they work?

 

In this situation, did our back up plans work? Or was there no back up plan for an expressway blocked in the first place? Meaning that a lot of our disaster planning is theoretical because there will be chaos whenever there is a disaster and one of the first things to happen is the roads will be jammed.

 

Already, the Little India riots where the riot police had to actually run with their gear because the roads were jammed showed the importance of clear roads.

 

Or perhaps, in their offices, they talk about their disaster plans.

 

And when the problem actually occurs

 

"There is no plan"

 

 

My two cents.

 

[Vhtfhwlego]

 

Road close due to accident at Upper Aljunied Road for few hours but not in webpage.

 

World Class.

[Lightbringer]

If you knew how some of the emergency or disaster scenarios and exercises are planned and executed, you would be so much more worried. Heh.

 

At the end of the day no matter how well you plan, the situation is always dynamic and fluid. Exercises and simulation are not only meant to see how well contingency plans can be executed by people on the ground and where shortcomings can be improved on; but also to get critical personnel used to the ebb and flow of working with each other.

 

Nothing is ever perfect and no plan is ever flawless, but I think we've done reasonably well in this domain so far. Not a reason to be complacent or proud though as there is still much room for improvement.

 

 

  On 11/11/2014 at 5:12 AM, Philipkee said:

I would like to add something that I read. Forgot the book so I will make up a bit of what I read.

 

It was in the late 1930s. In France, as the Allied army prepared for a possible invasion by the Germans, the Allies had a massive army exercise to test out their war plans. After the exercise, the commanders came together and gave their feedback.

 

British General: I noticed that the Ardennes is unguarded. If the Germans came through there, we would be totally outflanked.

Frence General: Do not worry. If the Germans punch through the Ardennes, our grand strategic reserve will repel them.

 

The matter was left at that.

 

Months later, the Germans invaded through the Ardennes

 

British General: All right, release the Grand strategic reserve

French General (pale faced): There is no Grand strategic reserve......

 

Now, do you not think that our situation is like this....

 

We have many plans. So called back ups. Redundancies. But in the recent cases like the Little India Riots, do they work?

 

In this situation, did our back up plans work? Or was there no back up plan for an expressway blocked in the first place? Meaning that a lot of our disaster planning is theoretical because there will be chaos whenever there is a disaster and one of the first things to happen is the roads will be jammed.

 

Already, the Little India riots where the riot police had to actually run with their gear because the roads were jammed showed the importance of clear roads.

 

Or perhaps, in their offices, they talk about their disaster plans.

 

And when the problem actually occurs

 

"There is no plan"

 

 

My two cents.

 

 

[OmOm]

  On 11/14/2014 at 11:20 AM, Lightbringer said:

If you knew how some of the emergency or disaster scenarios and exercises are planned and executed, you would be so much more worried. Heh.

 

At the end of the day no matter how well you plan, the situation is always dynamic and fluid. Exercises and simulation are not only meant to see how well contingency plans can be executed by people on the ground and where shortcomings can be improved on; but also to get critical personnel used to the ebb and flow of working with each other.

 

Nothing is ever perfect and no plan is ever flawless, but I think we've done reasonably well in this domain so far. Not a reason to be complacent or proud though as there is still much room for improvement.

 

 

 

 

As you have pointed out, many situations are highly dynamic and text-book style solutions just do not cut it.

 

Besides having to be quick on their feet, the folks responding to real-life emergencies in our local context face one big pressure point: not following the text-book recommendations exposes them to the danger of their heads rolling if anything goes wrong.

 

In our NS days, it is summarised by the hokkien saying: kiang doh ho, mai gei kiang (english translation: be smart but don't act smart).

 

This fear paralyses most people whenever they are faced with a situation that is not covered in their SOPs.

 

A fear-driven society produces individuals who are generally law-abiding but unwilling and/or unable to cope with unforeseen situations.

 

If innovative people who are willing to take risks by going for out-of-the-box solutions keep getting punished for failure to abide by rules and regulations / SOPs, after a while no one will want to stick their necks out by taking a path that is not well-trodden.