#871: S’pore’s Deepest MRT Tunnel & What About Our Nature Reserves? ft. Alvin Sim

Haresh (0:00)

Every day, millions of people, maybe including you, right? MRT trains that travel through tunnels people hardly think about. But building those tunnels takes teams working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, multiple years in a row, using machines that resemble mechanical earthworms, 12 meters wide and 80 meters long. Alvin Sim leads those teams at the Land Transport Authority.

Alvin Sim (0:22)

On a good day boring through rock, his team might advance just 2 meters, if they can achieve an advancement rate of about 3 meters a day, they actually celebrate.

Haresh (0:31)

Which is a little crazy, considering there's another 100 kilometers of tunnels planned by the early 2030s. On this episode, we discuss how explosives are sometimes used to build tunnels in Singapore, how fuel is stored 100 meters below the surface, and why, to him, Singapore hasn't even come close to using our parts down there.

Alvin Sim (0:50)

You can see how the island has grown from the 1960s, but likewise, we cannot grow sideways indefinitely. However, the underground space has got a lot of untapped potential, and I could definitely see that to be the future of where Singapore is headed.

Haresh (1:03)

Hello there. If you're new to Yah Lah But, welcome. We try our best to cover the news from every angle, no matter how controversial. And we are going to keep creating the best possible content for as long as possible. So it would mean the world to us if you could hit follow on this app. It's free and it will really help this podcast continue to grow. If you're already following us, thank you so much for being part of our journey. If you've been listening to us for a while, but haven't yet clicked on follow, all I can say is, why not? I mean, it's free. Okay, I know your device might not be in your hand, but it'll take like two seconds. So just do it now. Come on, just do it. Just do it. Okay, I'm not going to stop until you do it. Okay, done? Okay, great. Thanks.

What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Yah Lah, your thrice weekly podcast, where we talk about the hottest news with a touch of what, Terence?

Terence (1:51)

Good old humor.

Haresh (1:52)

Good old humor, man. Today is a special episode because, I mean, the person we're going to talk to knows some very intimate details about Singapore.

Terence (2:00)

Yeah, and I think he knows Singapore better than most people, right? Because we know, on the ground, you kind of know what happens on the ground. If you're a pilot or something, then you know what's on the air. But this man knows even more than that.

Haresh (2:14)

Where the sun don't shine.

Alvin Sim (2:16)

Where the sun don't shine.

Haresh (2:19)

Literally. Yeah, and that is Alvin Sim, who is the Deputy Director of Tunnelling at the Land Transport Authority, known as LTA. Welcome, Alvin.

Alvin Sim (2:28)

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me here.

Terence (2:30)

Yeah. But just to clarify, I mean, most of the time, you're above ground, right? I am. Yeah. It's not like you climbed out of the tunnels to do this podcast with us.

Alvin Sim (2:39)

No, I just crawled out of the tunnels, you know, just for this interview.

Haresh (2:42)

So, I mean, even when you tell people what you do, how well do you need to know them before you tell them you focus on tunneling, or versus just saying, I work at LTA?

Alvin Sim (2:51)

No, I think it's very intuitive. I think when I first meet people, they ask me, what do you do?

My first answer would be that I'm an engineer, and they will ask, what kind? And I would say civil engineer, and I specialize in tunneling.

Haresh (3:05)

So, you mean even at Chinese New Year gatherings, you would go to that detail, with a random uncle who will ask you, Alvin, what do you do?

Alvin Sim (3:11)

I think generally, once you ask engineer, engineer can mean a lot of things. People might be thinking software engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer. Those are your traditional engineering fields. Nowadays, there's your aeronautical engineers, your bioengineers. So, they would definitely want to know what kind of an engineer you are.

Haresh (3:28)

And the moment you tell them, tunneling, does the conversation carry on? Or they're like, okay, nice to see you again, Alvin, and then go take some pineapple tarts.

Alvin Sim (3:35)

I think they are typically very intrigued. They are typically very, very, very intrigued about the underground space. I think one of the questions I always commonly get is, hey, Singapore digs so much for what?