GS E&C completes Southeast Asia's first railway test center

The construction site of the Singapore Rail Test Centre, constructed by GS Engineering & Construction / Courtesy of GS Engineering & Construction

GS Engineering & Construction (E&C) has completed the Singapore Rail Test Centre (SRTC) in western Singapore, which is Southeast Asia's first and the world's 10th comprehensive rail system and train testing facility.

The company marked the facility's opening with a ceremony on Friday, inviting its infrastructure division head, Cho Sung-han, and representatives from Singapore’s Land Transportation Authority (LTA).

"Through the successful completion of this challenging project, we have gained recognition for our technical capabilities as a global railway construction company," the company said in a statement.

"We will strive to enhance the status of Korean construction companies in the global market based on our technical capabilities with overseas construction, as proven in Singapore."

The newly completed SRTC includes three new test tracks with a total length of 16.9 kilometers on the 540,000-square-meter site. The center will integrate different power supply methods, vehicle specifications and systems across Singapore's urban railways into one site to test durability, performance, compatibility and maximum speed performance on the test tracks. It also consists of 10 buildings, including an administrative building and a control center.

The facility will be used to conduct tests and inspections when introducing new cars for existing Singapore transportation lines to discover and provide solutions to problems that may occur during the vehicles’ operations.

The construction project the LTA commissioned was completed using GS E&C’s various construction technologies. To ensure constructability and quality, the company used precast concrete, which is a pre-manufactured concrete material, for structures like bridge superstructures, columns and exterior walls.

It also used building information modeling to predict potential interferences through three-dimensional modeling, minimizing risk factors during the construction. As a result, the company scored 14 million accident-free hours and completed the project on schedule.