JTC Corp on Wednesday awarded the first phase construction contract to Korean firm Hyundai Engineering and Construction, which will complete the first two caverns by 2013. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIMSingapore: CONSTRUCTION of Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC), the first underground oil storage facility in Singapore and Southeast Asia, will finally begin by year end and cost some $890 million.
JTC Corp on Wednesday awarded the first phase construction contract to Korean firm Hyundai Engineering and Construction, which will complete the first two caverns by 2013.
This comes after the tender was called for in late 2007. The three remaining caverns will be completed in five years, said JTC.
The complexity and design of the project has pushed up costs, originally estimated to be around $700 million, said a spokeperson from JTC Corp on Thursday.
The project's initial $50 million phase, which consists of constructing two access shafts and start-up galleries for the storage caverns, is nearly completed.
The media got a peek at the underground rock cavern on Thursday, via an access shaft that went as deep as 132 metres below the ground.
When completed, the first phase of the cavern will consist of 8km of tunnels with five caverns, each with two storage galleries.
Each storage gallery is typically nine-storeys high, and large enough to contain water from more than 64 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
It will be able to hold 1.47 million cube metres of oil underground.
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