Oral Reply by Senior Minister of State for Transport Dr Lam Pin Min to Parliamentary Questions on Collapse of Uncompleted Viaduct near PIE Exit to TPE

Miss Cheng Li Hui asked the Minister for Transport with regard to the collapse of the viaduct near the PIE exit to TPE

a.     what is the cause of the collapse;

b.     how does LTA assess and grade the contractors in the tender process especially for companies with serious workplace safety lapses; and

c.     what measures will be implemented to enhance workplace safety.

Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Transport whether past safety records of construction firms is a consideration in awarding bids for Government construction projects.

Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Transport

a.     what caused the collapse of the viaduct under construction in Upper Changi Road East;

b.     whether there have been previous sentinel events detected which could have raised concerns sooner; and

c.     to what extent will prior serious workplace safety lapses affect a contractor's grading in the LTA tender process.

Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Transport in the past three years

a.     how many tender submissions have been received by LTA from contractors with prior serious workplace safety lapses;

b.     how many have been successful in their bids and how many have been the lowest bid, respectively; and

c.     of the successful lowest bids from these contractors, what has been the median proportionate difference in the bid amount compared to the second lowest bid.

Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Transport

a.     whether the contract for the collapsed viaduct near PIE was awarded to the lowest bidder who participated in the tender as the main contractor;

b.     how are safety records of tenderers taken into consideration when evaluating tenders for the construction of transport infrastructure; and

c.     in the last five years, how many contracts involving the construction of transport infrastructure have exceeded the planned construction period by three months or more. 

Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for Transport with regard to the collapse of an uncompleted viaduct on 14 July 2017

a.     whether any extra checks are put in place when a construction company is blacklisted for a past incident while it is fulfilling a current contract for a public project; and

b.     how does the Ministry seek to prevent future instances from happening.

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked the Minister for Transport 

a.     what is the weight given to workplace safety track record relative to bid price and other factors in the awarding of tenders to companies for the construction of the transport infrastructure;

b.     how was the workplace safety track record of the companies that took part in the tender for the construction of the PIE-TPE viaduct that collapsed evaluated relative to their bid prices.

Reply by Senior Minister of State for Transport Dr Lam Pin Min:

1.     Madam Speaker, I am deeply saddened by the loss of life and injuries in the collapse of the viaduct. I extend my condolences to the family of Mr Chen Yinchuan, the worker who passed away, and pray for the recovery of the four workers still receiving treatment. 

2.     The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is working with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to investigate the cause of the collapse. Preliminary investigations suggest that the corbels supporting the deck slab gave way. However, we will have to wait till the investigations are completed to understand why they gave way.

3.     Members have asked about LTA's procurement process for construction projects. LTA adheres to the guidelines issued by BCA, which consider both the price and quality of bids.  BCA's guidelines for the price-quality ratio range from 60:40 for more complex projects, to 80:20 for simpler ones. For the construction of this viaduct, LTA adopted a ratio of 70:30, commonly used for projects of this complexity.

4.     As part of the overall quality score, LTA assesses the safety practices of the bidders, based on their past safety records (such as their demerit points from MOM), the safety performance of their ongoing projects, and the robustness of their safety management systems. 

5.     Tenderers who have had workplace safety lapses in the past would receive lower quality scores. If a bidder does not meet minimum overall quality requirements, his price envelope will not even be opened, and his bid will be disqualified. Two years ago, LTA further tightened the evaluation process, so that poor safety performance alone can lead to disqualification. Since then, 16 bids from ten contractors have been disqualified for this reason. 

6.     Over the past three years, LTA has called a total of 175 tenders for construction works, which received over 1100 submissions. Out of these submissions, 69 were from contractors who had serious workplace safety lapses. Of these 69, only two bids were successful. Both these bidders had submitted the lowest price bid and received the highest overall price-quality score. For these two cases, the winning price bids were 27% and 6% lower than the second lowest bids. 

7.     As for Mr Ang Wei Neng's query on project delays, out of 67 major rail and road projects that LTA has completed in the past five years, only seven exceeded the project time lines by more than three months.

8.     In this particular case, the main contractor Or Kim Peow Pte Ltd (OKP) had a fatal workplace incident at Yio Chu Kang Flyover in 2015. MOM's investigations were still ongoing at the time LTA was evaluating OKP's bid for the construction of this viaduct in question, and hence LTA did not disqualify OKP outright. Nevertheless, LTA gave OKP a low safety performance score in the evaluation of its bid. On the other hand, OKP offered the lowest tender price, and also had a good track record in completing many similar infrastructural projects over the past ten years. Overall, it obtained the highest score and was awarded the contract. 

9.     Following the accident, LTA conducted a half-day safety timeout for all ongoing road and rail construction projects to review on-site safety practices and measures. MOM inspected all active OKP worksites and other projects with ongoing viaduct works, and will step up inspection of other worksites performing formwork and concreting works. We will undertake all possible measures to prevent similar accidents.