Monday, September 15, 2008

Swing KPE - A Run Down the Longest Underground Tunnel in SEA

14 September 2008

More than 15,000 people gathered at the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) today morning. The KPE tunnel is the longest underground expressway tunnel in Southeast Asia. They were ferried from shuttle buses departing from Tampines and Kovan. Some Community Centres also had buses to ferry their constituents here.

Mother, Aunt, Lin Qiang and I reached the start point just on time to do some warming up. There were 2 categories of participants, namely the competitive 10km run and the Fun Run 5km.

Among the Guests-of-Honour were Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Mrs Lim Hwee Hua and LTA Chairman.

Participants of the Fun Run category were each given a battery-powered lantern. LTA hoped that the event could go into the Guiness Book of World Records for the largest lantern parade.

There were relatively few participants in the competitive category. After taking some photographs, the race began

It was cool to see the Electronic Signboards with messages on the event, Swing KPE.

As we run into the tunnel, there were segments where we were running in the dark, with spotlights and revved-up music to keep up the tempo. It was like having a disco party (with running substituting dancing).

Participants were told not to stray from the route onto others such as (below) Bartley Rd East. There were crew members stationed at each emergency exit so as to evacuate participants in terms of emergency.

There were a few disappointing features of the run. Firstly, there were no toilets within the tunnel. Secondly, there were only 2 water points issuing NEWater bottles to participants. The resultant litter of bottles (that rolled onto the running path) and bottle caps proved to be an eyesore and safety hazard.

On the positive side, as we run 5km into the tunnel from one end and making a loop into the opposing direction on the other side, there were informative banners to inform the participants on the safety points to note when using the KPE. Image above shows a message (both on the floor and in the lighted display) advising us not to reverse vehicles within tunnel. How cheeky can it get.

When we approached the finishing point, we were given goodie bags. Above Image shows typical Singaporeans grabbing way too many goodie bags for themselves. We happened to see Mayor Zainul, so we also took a photo with him.

In the evening, my family and I went to wedding dinner at HarbourFront Centre's Dragon Gate Restaurant. It reminded me of the time when Tengda organised a platoon buffet dinner at the same restaurant a few years ago.


There were only 5 people seated in our tables and we had a great feast.

Among the gifts were a cup coaster and some chocolates.

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