SINGAPORE \u2013 Nestled in a 12.5ha forested patch in northern Singapore is a graffiti-ridden concrete tunnel system filled with mud, handprints and pipes.<\/p>\n
It is pitch-dark and extremely challenging to navigate safely without a torch \u2013 that is, if one even finds the entrance, concealed within a jungle that is home to wild dogs, thorny palms and gnarly vines.<\/p>\n
About 20 years after a group called the Singapore Paranormal Investigators reportedly stumbled upon it, the Marsiling Tunnels \u2013 an informal name for the tunnels in the area \u2013 will be part of a wide-ranging investigation that will inform further plans for the site.<\/p>\n
The tunnels are home to the \u201conly known surviving pre-World War II or wartime underground fuel storage tank in Singapore and the region\u201d, said the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), National Heritage Board (NHB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in a statement to The Straits Times.<\/p>\n
SLA had called a tender to study the site \u2013 comprising state land bounded by Admiralty Road West, Admiralty Road and Marsiling Crescent \u2013 which closed on Oct 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appointed consultant\u2019s investigations include heritage and archaeological surveys, geophysical surveys, environmental site assessment, structural integrity inspections, unexploded ordnance surveys and other testing works,\u201d said the agencies.<\/p>\n
Besides the fuel storage facility, the Marsiling Tunnels include a nearby bunker that is also heavily graffitied. The historical purpose of the bunker \u2013 which includes tunnels so cramped that only squatting room is available \u2013 is not known.<\/p>\n
The study area is zoned a reserve site in URA\u2019s masterplan, meaning that its use has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
SLA, NHB and URA said there are \u201cno firm plans\u201d for the site at this point, adding: \u201cWhere necessary, agencies will also undertake environmental consultations and studies as part of future planning for the site.\u201d<\/p>\n The inside of what is believed to be a bunker near the old oil storage facility.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n John Kwok, a historian at consultancy Total Heritage, said the Singapore Paranormal Investigators in 2006 stumbled upon the Marsiling Tunnels, but could not ascertain what the structures were.<\/p>\n In 2007, group founder Kenny Fong approached Kwok \u2013 who was then a PhD student \u2013 about the structures, and the pair went on to determine their roots.<\/p>\n Tunnels in Marsiling were first mentioned in newspaper reports from December 1952, after four schoolboys reportedly found a \u201ccamouflaged ventilation shaft of a secret tunnel\u201d, sparking \u201ca big treasure hunt\u201d.<\/p>\n One contractor even spent $4,000 on excavations in the hope of finding treasure, but left empty-handed.<\/p>\n Kwok and Fong first considered if the Singapore, Japanese or British governments could have built the tunnels, but ruled out Singapore and Japan after finding no relevant records.<\/p>\n It was Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival\u2019s War Dispatch, published in February 1948, that revealed the British origins of the tunnels where the oil tanks are.<\/p>\n Percival was famously the General Officer Commanding of the British Commonwealth forces during the Battle of Malaya, and the one who signed the surrender of Singapore in February 1942.<\/p>\n Writing on strategic fuel depots in Singapore, Percival said in his dispatch: \u201cThe main Air Force petrol reserve was held in specially constructed underground tanks at Woodlands on Singapore Island a little south of the Causeway.\u201d<\/p>\n Kwok said the facility was reportedly completed by February 1942, adding that British intelligence reports from November 1944 indicate that Japanese troops had modified the facility for their use.<\/p>\n A series of pipes run along the main tunnel of the old oil storage facility.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n These reports described five large underground tanks with a total capacity of about 4,180 tonnes, more than the volume of 1\u00bd Olympic-size swimming pools.<\/p>\n Today, the walls of the five storage tanks can be seen, with each tank labelled numerically and linked by a series of pipes that run through a main tunnel that is at least 50m.<\/p>\n Pipes protruding from the wall of what presumably was an oil storage tank labelled \u201c1\u201d.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Although there are lights installed in the tunnel, the electrical wires that presumably powered them are no longer in place, and whether the lights are still operational is not known.<\/p>\n Cracks in the tunnel walls expose reinforcement bars \u2013 a sign of the wear that the tunnel has suffered over time.<\/p>\n Cables, possibly electrical wires, found at the foot of one of the sealed entrances to the old oil storage facility.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n SLA\u2019s tender documents state that the appointed consultants are to investigate and document inaccessible, buried or partially collapsed tunnel sections \u201cto the extent reasonably practicable\u201d. They add that a \u201cfull-scale archaeological excavation\u201d may be required, depending on the findings of a heritage survey that is part of the study.<\/p>\n The documents say that while tunnel restoration and repair works are not part of the study, \u201cpost-restoration 3D modelling\u201d is required to \u201cdefine the desired end-state deliverable should restoration works be undertaken subsequently\u201d.<\/p>\n Kwok said: \u201cThis is a well-preserved and large wartime structure, making it a rare find in the Pacific region. Its remote location preserved the structure from decades of development that took place elsewhere in Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the pipe network in the old oil storage facility.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n It is not known if any of the tanks still contain fuel, and Kwok \u2013 who noted that wartime fuel contained high levels of lead and benzene \u2013 cautioned that a soil investigation may be required before any development is done in the area, if fuel has leaked into the ground.<\/p>\n While other wartime tunnel complexes exist in Singapore, such as at Fort Canning and Fort Siloso, Kwok noted that these had a different role compared with the tunnel at the Marsiling facility.<\/p>\n The tunnel complex in Fort Siloso enabled soldiers to move safely from place to place<\/span><\/a> within the coastal defence system, he said, while the tunnel in Marsiling was likely a service tunnel where depot staff would check on the volume of oil stored in the tanks, or operate valves to move oil out of the facility.<\/p>\n The SLA-commissioned study is slated to be completed by the first half of 2028.<\/p>\n SLA, URA and NHB said parts of the site, including the tunnels, will be barricaded or cordoned off during the investigation works as a safety precaution. \u201cMembers of the public are advised not to enter the barricaded areas for their own safety,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Nestled in a 12.5ha forested patch in northern Singapore is a graffiti-ridden concrete tunnel system filled with mud, handprints and pipes. It is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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