One nice day of duty at the rotten base and I see quite a number of interesting sights and gain a couple of philosophical revelations. I was doing miserable guard duty at the rotten base when the I saw traffic on Nicoll Highway build up and come to a complete standstill. Imagine seeing the traffic not move for like at least half an hour.
Later I was informed that there was a power surge in the base and temporarily, power was cut and there was a blackout. Of course, I didn't even notice since the rotten base management prohibits the Team from "wasting electricty and water". All I noticed was that the traffic came to an absolute and complete standstill, for at least half an hour. It might have been an accident somewhere at the junction at Suntec City and had caused a massive backlog all the way to the beginning of the highway.
Never did I expect to hear the words "Nicoll Highway has collapsed!" from someone who proceeded to rush out of the base to have a look at the scene. It was only then I sighted an MPA (Marinetime and Port Authority) Boat in the Kallang Basin. If the MPA is there, it is usually quite serious. Especially since they are the biggest bunch of slackers that the gahmen pays money to upkeep for nothing at all.
Later I saw mobile squads from the Traffic Police speed down the expressway with their sirens and loudhailers. Then came many divisional police cars. What they did was to redirect traffic. Cars were asked to make a U-turn on the bridge itself and backtrack their route. As there are buses that use Nicoll Highway to head off into the City as well, and that they could not perform a U-turn, passengers were asked to drop off and walk to the another bus stop. The buses later reversed their way off the bridge after the whole place was clear of civilian traffic and flooded with police cars.
Then came the Civil Defence. A couple of Fire Engines, Light Assault Vehicles, DART Team Buses, a few ambulances, mobile headquarters as well as those ambulances the size of large buses. All racing towards the scene with sirens and all. If there is one gahmen organisation that I know that I can put my trust in, it is definitely the Civil Defence. After my attachment with them last year, I am convinced that that the average fireman is fitter than an army commando.
Action packed I guess. Then people working office hours at the base started streaming out to see the commotion. I could see all the big shots ranging from the Head Operations all the way down to the Police National Service Clerks head out to take a look. We had a couple of civil engineers who were even better. They ran towards the scene with digital cameras and started discussing the fundamentals of support structure beams.
Police Cars came and secured the entire highway, making it complete impassible to both human and vehicular traffic. From where I was, I could see that a crane had toppled over and that the overhead bridge in the area had collapsed as well. Rumours were rife that Nicoll highway itself had collapsed into the sea. And later more rumours that a bus had fallen in. Of course, it was later determined that the section that was above the Circle Line MRT construction site had caved in.
What I find incredibly miraculous is that there was NO CARS that dropped into that sunken mass. Considering that Nicoll Highway is always crowded with traffic, this is really nothing short of a miracle. What if a bus had plunged 30 meters into that ravine? It would have been far worse.
After those who had an early viewing of the whole scene returned to the base, they told me that the collapse area was about the "size of a football field" and about "30 over meters deep". Water pipes and electrical cables as well as gas pipes had been breached and they could smell the strong smell of gas in the air. Thank God no one in his folly lighted up a cigarette.
Then I saw vehicles from the Ministry of Environment coming around to take photographs of the scene, followed by Singapore Power who went to all the buildings to check on the power supply. Lastly, LTA vehicles were prowling around the sector doing goodness knows what. (Another bunch of slackers). I was told that the whole of Suntec City was plunged into darkness but the power supply guy told me later on that he had managed to restore power to all the buildings within 20 minutes.
As night fell, i could see Civil Defence trucks bringing in huge halogen lamps as well as even more Civil Defence vehicles heading towards the place. As darkness fell, the whole place became a blinking land mass of red and blue from all the police cars. Funny thing was that the policemen that were supposed to cordone off the area to the public were kaypo themselves as well. They stopped a couple of Coast Guard officers who wanted to have a look at the site. Yet after that, they proceeded to the scene themselves to have a look. Division policemen are nonsense.
And then there were other rumours that Golden Mile Complex had collapsed as well and that the area around Golden Mile Complex was being considered to be structurally unstable. Of course, I could not verify this from my position. The funny thing was that I was on duty at the time the bridge collapsed and yet did not hear anything unusual.
Chan was telling me that from the Jetty at the base he could see rising plumes of dust. No fire or explosions sighted. Generally, I guess people were more interested in finding out what had happened and became all eager to know what had happened than feeling worried or scared. The general sentiment was that "this doesn't happen in Singapore". Especially with our high standards of engineering and construction safety, I find it hard to believe that such a thing can happen.
At the end of the day, I couldn't take the bus home, so ended up riding the MRT and it turned out to be extraordinarily crowded, even at 9 plus at night. Power was cut out completely to the whole bridge. And to get to the MRT station, we can normally take a shortcut path under the bridge, however the whole place had been cordoned off. Thank God the policemen on duty recognised us as Coast Guard officers and let us pass. Chan and I managed to stand on Nicoll Highway for a while to see the sights. All I could see was a land mass of police cars, construction workers, bright lights and the media. Those people in the high rise buildings in the city could probably see everything from their vantage point of view.
I guess such things could have been worse. Yet sometimes, it comes back to the fundamentals in life. If life is so short. Then what is worth living for?
Later I was informed that there was a power surge in the base and temporarily, power was cut and there was a blackout. Of course, I didn't even notice since the rotten base management prohibits the Team from "wasting electricty and water". All I noticed was that the traffic came to an absolute and complete standstill, for at least half an hour. It might have been an accident somewhere at the junction at Suntec City and had caused a massive backlog all the way to the beginning of the highway.
Never did I expect to hear the words "Nicoll Highway has collapsed!" from someone who proceeded to rush out of the base to have a look at the scene. It was only then I sighted an MPA (Marinetime and Port Authority) Boat in the Kallang Basin. If the MPA is there, it is usually quite serious. Especially since they are the biggest bunch of slackers that the gahmen pays money to upkeep for nothing at all.
Later I saw mobile squads from the Traffic Police speed down the expressway with their sirens and loudhailers. Then came many divisional police cars. What they did was to redirect traffic. Cars were asked to make a U-turn on the bridge itself and backtrack their route. As there are buses that use Nicoll Highway to head off into the City as well, and that they could not perform a U-turn, passengers were asked to drop off and walk to the another bus stop. The buses later reversed their way off the bridge after the whole place was clear of civilian traffic and flooded with police cars.
Then came the Civil Defence. A couple of Fire Engines, Light Assault Vehicles, DART Team Buses, a few ambulances, mobile headquarters as well as those ambulances the size of large buses. All racing towards the scene with sirens and all. If there is one gahmen organisation that I know that I can put my trust in, it is definitely the Civil Defence. After my attachment with them last year, I am convinced that that the average fireman is fitter than an army commando.
Action packed I guess. Then people working office hours at the base started streaming out to see the commotion. I could see all the big shots ranging from the Head Operations all the way down to the Police National Service Clerks head out to take a look. We had a couple of civil engineers who were even better. They ran towards the scene with digital cameras and started discussing the fundamentals of support structure beams.
Police Cars came and secured the entire highway, making it complete impassible to both human and vehicular traffic. From where I was, I could see that a crane had toppled over and that the overhead bridge in the area had collapsed as well. Rumours were rife that Nicoll highway itself had collapsed into the sea. And later more rumours that a bus had fallen in. Of course, it was later determined that the section that was above the Circle Line MRT construction site had caved in.
What I find incredibly miraculous is that there was NO CARS that dropped into that sunken mass. Considering that Nicoll Highway is always crowded with traffic, this is really nothing short of a miracle. What if a bus had plunged 30 meters into that ravine? It would have been far worse.
After those who had an early viewing of the whole scene returned to the base, they told me that the collapse area was about the "size of a football field" and about "30 over meters deep". Water pipes and electrical cables as well as gas pipes had been breached and they could smell the strong smell of gas in the air. Thank God no one in his folly lighted up a cigarette.
Then I saw vehicles from the Ministry of Environment coming around to take photographs of the scene, followed by Singapore Power who went to all the buildings to check on the power supply. Lastly, LTA vehicles were prowling around the sector doing goodness knows what. (Another bunch of slackers). I was told that the whole of Suntec City was plunged into darkness but the power supply guy told me later on that he had managed to restore power to all the buildings within 20 minutes.
As night fell, i could see Civil Defence trucks bringing in huge halogen lamps as well as even more Civil Defence vehicles heading towards the place. As darkness fell, the whole place became a blinking land mass of red and blue from all the police cars. Funny thing was that the policemen that were supposed to cordone off the area to the public were kaypo themselves as well. They stopped a couple of Coast Guard officers who wanted to have a look at the site. Yet after that, they proceeded to the scene themselves to have a look. Division policemen are nonsense.
And then there were other rumours that Golden Mile Complex had collapsed as well and that the area around Golden Mile Complex was being considered to be structurally unstable. Of course, I could not verify this from my position. The funny thing was that I was on duty at the time the bridge collapsed and yet did not hear anything unusual.
Chan was telling me that from the Jetty at the base he could see rising plumes of dust. No fire or explosions sighted. Generally, I guess people were more interested in finding out what had happened and became all eager to know what had happened than feeling worried or scared. The general sentiment was that "this doesn't happen in Singapore". Especially with our high standards of engineering and construction safety, I find it hard to believe that such a thing can happen.
At the end of the day, I couldn't take the bus home, so ended up riding the MRT and it turned out to be extraordinarily crowded, even at 9 plus at night. Power was cut out completely to the whole bridge. And to get to the MRT station, we can normally take a shortcut path under the bridge, however the whole place had been cordoned off. Thank God the policemen on duty recognised us as Coast Guard officers and let us pass. Chan and I managed to stand on Nicoll Highway for a while to see the sights. All I could see was a land mass of police cars, construction workers, bright lights and the media. Those people in the high rise buildings in the city could probably see everything from their vantage point of view.
I guess such things could have been worse. Yet sometimes, it comes back to the fundamentals in life. If life is so short. Then what is worth living for?
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