In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New cities’, Cho (2014) claims that infrastructure in cities need to continuously upgrade despite having many ‘urban challenges’ These obstacles are faced in new cities such as King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). A group of students along with the author formed a research group in Saudi Arabia known as the KAEC fellowship to assess the challenges and to see what companies are doing to overcome them. KAEC fellowship has encompassed the Envision rating system and will award prestigious awards such as Infrastructure 360 award to companies who meets the stringent requirements. The author also states that a well-planned project will strengthen the community as many of our work and social environment revolves heavily around infrastructures. 

I agree with the author that having a well-planned infrastructure improves the convenience of my daily activities because I utilize infrastructures almost every day. Such infrastructures include public transportation and school as I need to travel from my house to school and back daily. Transportation infrastructure helps the working adults too, as many are turning to public transportation due to the high cost in car prices. In a small country such as Singapore, transport infrastructure is especially important due to the high density in population. Hence, sufficient trains, buses and other means of public transport need to cater to the high influx of commuters during peak hours.

With an average of 2.9 million commuters daily and an increasing population, it is important that the transportation infrastructure keep improving and upgrading to cater to high demand. On 7 July 2015, Singapore’s railway system, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) had a massive breakdown during evening peak hour where more than 250,000 passengers were affected for at least 3.5 hours. After weeks of investigation, the MRT engineers and Land Transport Authority (LTA) claimed that the breakdown was attributed to poor maintenance of electrical cable. Therefore with proper planning and scheduling of maintenance dates, these breakdowns could have been avoided.

The author also mentioned that having a good highway infrastructure could achieve ‘tangible social benefit’. I agree with the author with this statement as Singapore, has a high car density as well. In order to overcome this, LTA has widen a couple of expressway in Singapore to ease the congestion during peak hours. An example would be the widening of busiest expressway in Singapore, Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) that started in 2011 and ended in 2013. I feel that this is a good initiative made by LTA as many motorist will not be caught in peak hour jams and be able to make it to work on time.  There are many other expressways namely, the Central Expressway (CTE) and Punggol Highway that have widened to improve traffic conditions.

While I agree that transportation and road infrastructure are important, I felt that the author has neglected other equally important infrastructure such as health care. In 2014, despite having 7 public hospitals in Singapore, there were still shortages of beds and wards for patients. Some patients had to wait for as long as 24 hours just to get a bed. In my opinion, these could have been prevented by building more hospitals and place them in areas with high population density. Other infrastructures including electrical power, water and buildings which the author has failed to mention.

In conclusion, I agree with many points that Cho has mentioned regarding how infrastructure can have social benefits. I believe that infrastructure is important in every city not just in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). In a city with a fast growing population, it is important that the building and upgrading of infrastructure keep up at the same pace. Therefore the government plays an important role in developing the country’s infrastructure so that the country strive as an economic hub.

Gregory L. Tan

- Last edited 30/09/2015

References:

Wikipedia on Mass Rapid Transit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)

Kyle Malinda (2015) - Cause of massive NSEWL train disruption in July identified - http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/cause-of-massive-nsewl/2014794.html

Widening of PIE between Clementi Avenue 6 and Adam Road - http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/roads-and-motoring/projects/also-in-progress/widening-of-pie-between-clementi-avenue-6-and-adam-road.html

Salma Khalik, Senior Health Correspondent (2014) - http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hospitals-facing-severe-bed-crunch-take-unusual-steps