Earlier this morning, motorists traveling along the underground Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) tunnel were faced with a rather squelchy conundrum — an intense torrent of water gushing down from the ceiling.
It got so bad that motorcyclists had to stop by the side of the road and put on their raincoats just so that they could get to their destination without getting drenched. Who would’ve expected getting soaked in an underground expressway, anyway?
Being a 3.5-kilometer underground tunnel with a stretch that travels under the seabed, folks presumed that seawater had breached the MCE, or that a pipe had burst. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) dismissed the rumors, clarifying that the incident was due to an accidentally-triggered water-based fire-fighting system in the tunnel. It was a technical fault, said LTA, and it has since been rectified.
This wouldn’t be the first time the MCE faced sodden issues, too. In January last year, an entire section of the expressway had to be shut down for two hours because of a burst pipe, and repair works had to be carried out.
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