HDB steps up lift upgrading

Source : Straits Times - 7 Mar 2009

THE pace of lift upgrading in HDB blocks will be increased by as much as 12 per cent this year - a move that will give struggling local builders a timely leg up.

The Senior Minister of State for National Development, Ms Grace Fu, said yesterday that the HDB is ‘going to hasten the pace of the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) because we think this is a very good time’.

‘The construction prices are moderating, and I think it’s good for us to take advantage. At the same time, we also see this as a way of injecting new work into the market,’ added Ms Fu, who was speaking on a visit to Block 906, Tampines Avenue 4, a pilot project for one of the lift upgrading schemes for HDB blocks.

Ms Fu said in Parliament recently that some government infrastructure projects, each with a value of up to $50 million and including lift upgrades, would be brought forward to help the building industry.

The HDB chose 60 precincts for lift upgrading last year - 10 more than was initially planned.

For this year, Ms Fu said yesterday: ‘We will look at bringing forward more, but a lot depends on the prices that we get as well.’

The HDB has spent $2.4 billion over the past five years on various upgrading programmes with a further $4.6 billion earmarked to be spent over the next five years.

The entire lift upgrading programme, which is slated for completion by 2014, will cost $5.5 billion.

Carrying out lift upgrades is part of a broader exercise to help struggling small- and medium-sized contractors get through the worsening recession by offering them a range of projects, each valued at $50 million or less.

About $1.3 billion worth of such work, from upgrading lifts and parks to schools, will be tendered out this year.

It will bring the total value of small- and medium-sized public sector projects to $4.8 billion for the year. This is 67 per cent more than the average annual value of such projects awarded in the past five years, said Ms Fu.

Ms Fu’s visit to Tampines Avenue 4 highlighted some of the innovative solutions needed in lift upgrades.

There are about 180 such uniquely designed half-landing blocks islandwide. In the past, lift upgrading still left residents needing to climb half a flight of steps from the lift to reach their homes.

Now they will get direct lift access thanks to new entrances built in the living rooms. These are connected by a common lift landing directly to the new lift shafts.

Work at the 21 pilot blocks began in November 2007 and was completed in January this year.

Resident Chew Geok Poh, who is in her 30s, said the lift upgrading was a ‘great help’ for her mother, who was finding it difficult to climb four flights of stairs to get to their home at the four-storey block.

The HDB has been working on the 21 blocks in its pilot project and will continue to offer such lift access to the remaining eligible blocks.