The old Ayer Rajah Road

Posted by noelbynature under Heritage Sites and Trails, National History
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The Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), stretches from Tuas to the west to Keppel at the easternmost. While officially constructed in the early 80s and completed in the late 90s, Peter Chan argues that the AYE, or at least Ayer Rajah Road should have been considered Singapore’s first expressway.

The stage to transform Ayer Rajah Road into an expressway was set in the 1960s, when Singapore began to ramp up efforts to build a road network. Peter writes:

Ayer Rajah Road was never appropriately considered as the first Singapore expressway when the public road infrastructure project got underway in 1962. It was a part of “Major Road Construction Projects” in Singapore at that time; meaning road widening and extension was all that mattered. So low was the priority that only S$0.385m was allocated for the Ayer Rajah Road project. As a child passing through this way many times over, the dramatic transformation of Ayer Rajah Road (into the AYE by the mid-1980s) and the surrounding landscape fascinated me. So I like to describe yesterday’s Ayer Rajah Road and its vicinity to you.

Join Peter as he points out some of the landmarks along the old Ayer Rajah Road here.