By Hoe Pei Shan
THE timely installation of five debris-trap gratings at Stamford Canal on Thursday seems to have worked during Friday morning's heavy downpour.
Costing the PUB $25,000 to install, these gratings helped prevent a repeat of ast week's massive floods from reoccurring. No roads were submerged on Friday despite the 100mm of rain which fell between 8 am and 9.30 am.
The scene at the prime shopping strip on Friday morning was in stark contrast to last Wednesday's when the deluge turned the stretch into 'Orchard River' in the worst flooding in 26 years.
The only incident out of the ordinary occurred outside Orchard Central when a
fallen tree blocked three of the five lanes, slowing traffic. Everything else seemed to move along as usual.
Businesses were not affected, neither at Lucky Plaza nor at Liat Towers which was the major casualties of last week's floods in the shopping belt. Tourists and passers-by, clutching umbrellas, did not appear frazzled by the rain, and some even stopped to gawk at the fallen tree, posing and snapping photos.
The water level in Stamford Canal was relatively low, and other flood-prone spots hit by last week's rains stayed dry.
The five new zig-zag gratings, which catch debris without stopping water flow, are in open drains -for easy maintenance - at Camp Road, Napier Road near Minden Road, Nassim Road, Grange Road and Tanglin Road.
