Download PDF - Land Transport Authority

10LTA Veteran Wins OutstandingProject Manager AwardFor Woodsville Interchange Upgrading1The upgrading of the Woodsville Interchange is one of the mostcomplicated and challenging LTA projects, as it involves building threeroad tunnels and one flyover in an area with heavy traffic, around theintersection of Serangoon Road, Upper Serangoon Road, MacPhersonRoad and Bendemeer Road.The LTA Deputy Director behind it, Mr Sihan Sadikin, has just pickedup an Outstanding Project Manager award from the Society of ProjectManagers Singapore. The LTA veteran with 25 years experience hadalso managed the successful completion of the Dover MRT station andmany other projects.Connect speaks to Mr Sadikin.Which year did you join LTA?It was in 1985 when I took on thejob as a site engineer with the thenMass Rapid Transit Corporation(MRTC). It was the initial phaseof the building of MRT system inSingapore and I was involved inthe Bishan Depot project. Overthe years, I have been given manyopportunities to work for rail androad projects.Can you tell us more about thechallenges of the WoodsvilleInterchange upgrading?This was the most challengingproject I had ever worked on.We had to construct three newvehicular tunnels within the limitedspace bounded by the existingPIE, North East Line and the DeepTunnel Sewerage System. Adjacentto the interchange were over350 structures comprising of oldshop houses, residential houses,condominiums and office buildings.We also had to manage andensure safe and smooth trafficflow in the busy and heavilytrafficked road interchange duringthe entire construction period.At least 50 traffic diversionsthroughout the construction periodwere implemented.How did you overcome thesechallenges?We engaged the community andstakeholders. Besides briefingsand regular newsletter updates,we set up the “Project andCommunity and Control Centre”where stakeholders could viewthe architectural models to fullyappreciate the complexity andchallenges of the project aswell as efforts that LTA put in toensure that construction iscarried out safely.How has working in the LTA overthe years developed your skillsand professional expertise?I am very fortunate to havebeen involved in both rail androad projects of various scalesand complexities, which havesharpened my skills. Workingand communicating withpeople from different technicalprofessions has also broadenedmy knowledge and made me veryversatile. I am also very fortunateto have had the opportunity towork with many talented people,who became my mentors.What have been some of yourmost satisfying moments at LTA?On a micro level, what I valuemost is when my team and I workhard and sweat together, and wesuccessfully and safely deliver aproject. Then we all share the joyof saying to each other “Yes, wehave done it!”On a macro-scale, I am so happyto be a part of the LTA family. Aswe help to shape the landscapeof our land transport system,there are so many exciting andchallenging moments that weshare and I am proud that we haveachieved so much together.1 Mr Sadikin (left) receiving an award from Acting Minister for Ministry of Manpower and Senior Minister of State, Ministry of NationalDevelopment, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin.