Have you ever noticed the colourful HDB blocks near Bugis?
Look again. Those brightly painted blocks in blue, green, red and yellow will soon be a thing of the past in the months to come.
This iconic estate is called Rochor Center. Built by the HDB and completed in 1977, Rochor Centre was listed as a landmark to be protected by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. However, come September, the buildings in the estate will be demolished to make way for the North-South Expressway (NSE).
Rochor Centre was designed in the podium-and-tower style where the first three floors of the building consists of a supermarket, shops and other amenities, and the void decks in to the fourth floor. The residential units only start from the fifth floor onwards. This was typical of estates built around that period of time.
The NSE will be the 11th of Singapore's network of expressways when completed. It will have a total of 16 entrances and 17 exits to connect towns along the north-south corridor—Woodlands, Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Toa Payoh—with the city centre. The NSE will also provide links to existing expressways, including the Seletar Expressway (SLE), Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) and East Coast Parkway (ECP).
Editor's Note:
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