Enhancing blue-green connectivity: Eastern Corridor completed in Singapore

29 FEBRUARY 2024 – Singapore has a goal of enabling every household to live within a 10-minute walk of a park by 2030. In line with expanding and enhancing connectivity across the island, the National Parks Board (NParks) has completed the 18-kilometre Eastern Corridor between Pasir Ris Park and East Coast Park, through Bedok Reservoir Park. Nparks will also enhance the eastern half of the Round Island Route (RIR) with wayfinding features, landscaping and habitat creation.

Blue-green connectivity

The Eastern Corridor has been opened in stages since 2021 after it was first announced, enabling the public to enjoy walking and cycling along sections of the corridor as soon as they were ready. The completion of the corridor offers the public an alternative route to travel between Pasir Ris Park and East Coast Park, linking several parks in the east that offer nature-based recreational experiences. These include bird watching at Tampines Eco Green, therapeutic gardens at Sun Plaza Park and sports activities at East Coast Park.

Half of the route is located along waterways, including those enhanced under the national water agency PUB’s Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme (i.e., Sungei Tampines and Sungei Bedok), offering park visitors a scenic cycling and walking experience.

The corridor also features the new 600-metre Bedok Park Connector (Eastern Bank) and recently completed park connectors along Tampines Ave 9 and Tampines Ave 10, totalling over 3.2 kilometres.

Upcoming enhancements

Since the eastern half of the RIR was opened in January 2022, it made for the island’s longest recreational connection from Rower’s Bay Park in the northeast to Changi Beach Park, East Coast Park and past the Singapore River to Berlayer Creek (Labrador Nature Park) in the south.

To enhance the recreational experience along the eastern half of the RIR, NParks will be introducing wayfinding such as mapboards and directional signage to allow for better navigation and improved user experience, and multi-tiered landscaping to provide shade and greenery. Marine tiles will also be installed to attract biodiversity along the route. Three new cycling bridges at Changi Beach Park and East Coast Park are also being planned to improve park visitors’ experience.

Stay tuned for FuturArc 1Q 2024: Health/Wellness!

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