• Non-stop rain over Friday and Saturday has eroded a slope in Pasir Ris and caused a heritage tree at Fort Canning Park to collapse
• Works are underway to repair both the slope and the damage sheltered escalators caused by the fallen tree
• The torrential rain over the two days is caused by a monsoon surge for the northeast monsoon season

SINGAPORE — The torrential rain from a monsoon surge that poured continuously across Singapore over the new year weekend has resulted in landslides over several parts of the island, and even caused a heritage tree at Fort Canning Park to uproot itself.

On Sunday (Jan 3) afternoon, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a Facebook post that it had closed off a slip road of the Tampines Expressway (Changi) heading towards Loyang Avenue as repair works needed to be carried out at a slope beside it.

The authority explained that continuous rain had caused the slope, located across 143 Pasir Ris Street 11, to erode on Saturday.

While LTA said preliminary investigations found that the stability of the slip road is “currently not affected”, it has been closed off to motorists since Saturday night as a safety precaution.

Pictures taken from the aftermath of the incident, which have since gone viral, showed that earth had rolled down the slope, knocking over seven fences along a canal in the process.

Subsequent photos from the site that were put up on Facebook on Sunday by Mr Sharael Taha, the Member of Parliament for the Pasir Ris–Punggol Group Representation Constituency, showed the slope covered in tarpaulin and workers working to stabilise it.

While the slip road has yet to reopen as of 10pm on Sunday, LTA said it will update the public of the repair’s progress on its social media accounts.

Elsewhere, a video uploaded onto the Facebook group SG Road Vigilante purportedly shows mud sliding down a hill in Outram on Saturday onto a service road at Furama Riverfront Hotel. 

A spokesperson for the hotel said on Monday that Singapore Land Authority engineers have assessed that the slope is stable.

Nevertheless, canvas sheets have been placed over the affected area to prevent further soil slippage, said the spokesperson.

As an added precaution, he said the area has been cordoned off to both the public and hotel guests. 

Hotel staff have also been briefed accordingly, said the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, at Fort Canning Park, the National Parks Board (NParks) said on Sunday that a 22m tall heritage tree, a ficus kurzii, had collapsed due to the consecutive days of heavy rain which resulted in “soil failure” — in other words, the earth no longer had the strength to hold the tree.

According to NParks, the ficus kurzii is a rare tree that is distributed in scattered locations throughout the western parts of Southeast Asia.

In response to TODAY’s queries, Mr Ryan Lee, the group director for Fort Canning Park and Istana at NParks, said they had received reports of the tree’s collapse around 9.40am on Saturday.

Although there were no visitors within the vicinity of the tree when it fell, it damaged a section of sheltered escalators leading up from Jubilee Park — located near the junction of Clemenceau Avenue and River Valley Road — to Fort Canning Hill.

Mr Lee said the fallen tree is in the process of being removed.

He added that while the escalators will be closed off until further notice, visitors can still access Fort Canning Hill through Canning Rise or a series of staircases from Jubilee Park.

PREVAILING MONSOON SURGE

Aside from the incidents, the prevailing monsoon surge brought the mercury down to a low of 21.1°C on Saturday.

However, the persistent rain over Friday and Saturday also resulted in Singapore's national water agency PUB issuing flood risk warnings for several locations.

This included Lorong Halus in Pasir Ris, Mountbatten Road and the junction of Bedok Road and Upper Changi Road East, when the heavy rain caused water levels in the drains and canals to exceed 90 per cent capacity.

The Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao reported that several cars had been stranded in flash floods on Lorong Halus on New Year’s Day itself.

Over the two days, PUB said its quick response teams were deployed to direct traffic and render assistance to residents in the affected areas by installing inflatable flood bags to protect their homes, for instance.

PUB said that the highest total amount of rainfall since the first day of the year till Saturday noon was recorded at Changi at 318.6mm — more than January’s average of 238.3mm.

The heaviest downpour on Saturday was also at Changi where it recorded 184.4mm of rainfall between 12am and noon.

PUB said this puts Saturday’s torrent within the top 1 per cent of maximum daily rainfall records for the past 39 years.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Saturday that Singapore had experienced its first monsoon surge for the northeast monsoon season.

This refers to a strengthening of winds over the South China Sea, which causes extensive rain clouds to form over the surrounding region. Typically, two to three surges are expected during the season, said NEA.

Still, it added that the current rainy weather is gradually easing, as the prevailing monsoon surge in the region is starting to weaken.