A new road at the Tampines Expressway (TPE) entering Punggol Central is opening on March 30, 2019.

New slip roads to Punggol

A new slip road from TPE (SLE) Exit 6 at KPE/TPE interchange will be accessible from 3am on Saturday night, March 30, 2019.

Currently, motorists can enter Punggol Road and Punggol Way via Exit 9 and 10 which is further down the expressway.

However, this slip road that links to Halus Link towards Lorong Halus will provide an alternative route into Punggol Central.

This new road should serve to ease the traffic congestion along TPE and in Punggol, particularly during evening peak hours.

More new roads opening by 2021

Furthermore, another slip road will open by June 2019 to link motorists to Punggol Central via Exit 7 along TPE (PIW).

Motorists should also take note that the current "Exit 7" that links to Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), towards East Coast Parkway (ECP), will then be renamed to 'Exit 7A' instead.

Two additional roads will also be opening by second quarter of 2021 as indicated in pink on the map below.

Rapid-growing estate

Over the past decade, the residential population in Punggol has tripled from 54,560 in 2008 to 161,570 as of June 2018, based on data from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

With new housing developments, the Punggol estate is projected to be twice the size of Ang Mo Kio in the future.

Ang Mo Kio has a population of 165,710.

Until the new link roads open, Punggol has only three major arterial roads leading to the Tampines Expressway (TPE) and Kallang Expressway (KPE) — Punggol Way, Punggol Road, Punggol East.

Here's an illustration of the traffic woe that the motorists have been facing.

A new road linking Punggol Central to both KPE and TPE was opened on November 25, 2018 to ease the congestion.

Top photo collage from Sun Xueling Facebook and Feeza AR Muhammad Facebook