There are at least 300,000 migrant construction workers in Singapore. Their average annual income of $25K.

They represent an economic group of $7.5 billion, larger than the GDP of more than 40 countries.

They are a forgotten national resource until Covid 19 woke us up to the fact. In a matter of weeks, the invisible virus has tainted Singapore’s reputation as the cleanest and safest city in Asia.

The whole nation has woken up to the fact that they deserve more including the Prime Minister. As a nation we need to provide them with more decent, sanitary,wholesome, and socially conducive living conditions.

The challenge to overcome, as for every physical development in Singapore is land, or rather the lack of it. A disruptive innovation is called for.

Singapore’s ability to design and build offshore structures for the world needs to be activated to resolve this enormous problem.

The Society representing professionals with the skill and knowledge to build structures that float in water finds this an unparalleled opportunity to address this national challenge. We would be found wanting if we fail to put that knowledge to work.

We can find solutions to house if necessary, all of them in decent and comfortable floating homes, with recreational spaces, not of condominium standard but better much better than their present situation addressing both their physical and socio-psychological needs.

Description

It is a disruptive notion but let us begin by offering an element of that vision as a possible candidate for a pilot project. When proven this element can be scaled up to accommodate all migrant construction workers.

The concept comprises a cluster of four hexagonal concrete platforms with 36-metre side and about 1 metre freeboard. The overall depth is expected to be about 2.5 metres, but this would require checking based on live and dead loads.

Fig.1 shows the configuration of satellite platforms D1, D2, and D3, and C the Central Platform C.

Each resident’s personal space is minimally furnished for health reasons. It comprises his bed, a storage shelf above it, and locker (2-tier) in the container cabin which he shares with two others, see Fig. 3. His personal luggage is to be stored beneath his bed.

Each cabin is fitted with 3 beds and a shared space for a toilet and for brewing coffee and a spare common locker for a broom, dustpan and other shared items.

Two windows on each side ensure good ventilation and natural lighting.

On occasions when he needs more space to store bulky items he has bought for his homeward journey, he will need to use the general store in the basement, below the main deck.

In Fig. 1 the plan view shows one possible layout of the of the containers on each platform. Each block has five standard shipping containers placed end to end and stacked five high.Each block is supported by trusses creating a void space beneath as shown in Fig. 2. This void space is enclosed by creeper plants to soften the environment. Containers are preferred for reasons which will be apparent later.

The void area is for dining (in addition to dining space at C) and for washrooms. Normally workers take about 15 minutes to take their meal and then retire to take a nap. Thus, a capacity of 25 at one sitting is adequate.

Food is prepared in kitchens at C. Orders may be placed 2 hours before mealtime to facilitate preparation.

Meals are served in stainless steel, compartmentalised plates. Trays are returned to specified areas based on cultural backgrounds. All dirty cups and plates are machined washed.

Collectively the three pontoons provide 2250 beds. The residents enjoy the exclusive use of 1.85 ha i.e. a global density of 8.2 sq. m per resident. (The spaces under the main decks of the four pontoons if considered would increase this figure to about 12 sq.m per resident, triple the average figure now prevailing across the island[i].)

In the basement, beneath the decks in the pontoons D1, D2 and D3 are more showers and toilets as well as industrial duty laundromats for heavily soiled work coveralls. Area for drying damp clothes are fitted with industrial extraction fans that exhaust above the cabins.

Wastewater from toilets and galleys are treated to comply with IMO standards before it is overboard. Surface runoff on the decks during a rainstorm is collected for washing clothes, bathing, and flushing toilets.

Covered footpaths link D1, D2 and D3 to C the Community Centre.

The connection between the pontoons may be rigid or hinged. Detailed technical analysis would throw light on the advantage of the two types of connections.

Three other sides of C are connected by T-shaped floating bridges to the floating berths where ferries may land for embarkation and disembarkation of residents (Fig. 1). These bridges are made from standard HDPE floatation blocks with a load capacity of 500 kg/m2. The berths also double up as part of a 500m jogging tracks.

The entire cluster is kept in position by a suitable mooring system. In this example, we illustrate the use of three monopiles at D1, D2 and D3. These are steel tubes fitted with fenders. (Catenary chain, gravity piles and spud cans are other options. All are simple to erect. They restrain lateral motion but allow the platforms to rise and fall with the tide.)

Health, safety, and the environment

Public health issues related to the discharge of effluent into the sea shall comply with national and IMO standards. The impact on the environment will be investigated.

How the structure is to be demobilised and repurposed after its economic life will be addressed in the context of environmental impact.

Every component of the project will be accredited by class such as Lloyds, ABS or DNV-GL, all have offices in Singapore. They validate the stability, structural integrity, and seaworthiness of the complex and advise on measures to reduce oscillation characteristics that may induce motion sickness.

Each resident will be issued with a safety vest. Lifebuoys will be placed around the water’s edge. Surveillance cameras will be linked to the nearest coast guard station.

Public address system is mounted on each pontoon to sound alarm in case of an emergency.

Agreements will be put in place for a couple of ferry operators to provide 24-hr evacuation service in the event of a medical emergency.

Fire fighting service is available in the form of fire fighting tugs operated by the Maritime and Port Authority. Additionally,fire extinguishers are placed at the staircase of each block.

Solid waste disposal system will be provided at each pontoon.

The license to operate the complex is subject to renewal by the Manpower Ministry every year and a log is maintained to record any safety transgressions.

Sea transport

As a compact maritime state, these facilities can be located any suitable sites around the island and yet be well served by cargo boats and passenger ferries. If located about 2 km from shore the boat ride would be under 10 minutes. For this reason, a permanent bridge connection is not recommended,for cost reasons as well as its negative impact on other users of the waterfront. Landing points on the mainland can be simple. A floating pontoon will suffice.

Scalability

The concrete pontoons can be constructed in 60 days or less. Simultaneous manufacturing can take place at multiple vacant waterfront sites in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, or Thailand. No special skill or expensive workshops are needed. Containerised sleeping berths are mass produced[2] in several countries; their delivery is not an issue.

Why is scalability important?

There are more than 300,000 migrant workers in the construction industry. Covid 19 has exposed the shortcomings of the present land-based accommodations which cannot be scaled down easily. Finding another plot of land to build a new dorm takes time even if a plot of land can be found.

The system proposed allows the dorms to be moved from location to location, to be expanded, or to be scaled back with no impact on the urban landscape and hardly any on the marine environment.

The socio-psychological dimension

The migrant worker is in a foreign land, away from his family and friends, immersed in a culture that is unfamiliar to him and struggles linguistically to make himself understood by his bosses. When not mentally occupied at his workplace boredom creeps in leading to the deterioration of his mental health.

The environment where he spends most of his waking hours is the dormitory and its surrounds. That environment needs to cater for his mental well being. It must be rich with opportunities to indulge in pastimes: games, hobbies, grow plants, fish, jog, watch a movie, read, relax, reflect, and yarn with friends over a drink.

In the development of this complex, facilities to enable such activities are given more weight than the “spaciousness” of the cabins. Hence the central feature of this development is the social hub, the Community Centre. It is this that distinguishes it from the present-day designs of migrant worker accommodation.

The Community Centre is equipped with Wi-Fi internet access, TVs, and free movies. It is a place where drinks and food are prepared and sold 24×7, and where ATM machine, Western Union outlet, 7-eleven store, laundry service, barbershops, newsagents are located making trips to town less necessary. The average disposal income of more than 2000 workers can support such services.

The Centre is the central feature of the complex and is what makes the complex an attractive microcosm of a town centre where the residents can live as near a normal life as is possible in his country.

The environment should be pleasant, not air-conditioned but well ventilated with 6-m solar power fans with battery back-ups during the night or cloudy days.

Three sides of C abut water, marked R in Fig. 1 may be used for recreation. They can remain as seawater enclosures or freshwater ones (the latter by using membrane-type containment to separate it from seawater.) Several things could be considered for their use: rearing crabs, oysters, or freshwater fish, grow vegetables on floating planters, or with some safety nets as a place to take a dip in the morning or evening.

All deck spaces are fitted with handrails, benches, street lights and generously landscaped with greenery. The whole area provides a peaceful, soothing ambience at dusk and dawn a delight to retreat to after a hard day’s work.

It is designed to induce residents to remain outdoor as many hours as possible and only to return to his cabin to sleep. The same strategy is used in cruise ships. Lots of food and activities so passengers state outside their staterooms. Rules against cooking, eating, hanging dirty and wet clothes in rooms are difficult to enforce if there are no alternatives for the resident.

The proposed complex has space, critical mass, and ambience conducive to mental health. He need not frequent the city as often to congregate with friends and unwittingly trigger the ire of locals in shopping malls, bars, and parks, or worse infect many in buses and trains.

Floating parks, malls, and entertainment centres

To reduce the psychological stress of living in a tight cluster, workers need to find diversion with an occasional change of environment. They congregate in places such as Little India, Lucky Plaza, City Plaza, Peninsula Plaza and Golden Mile Complex every weekend until authorities put an end to such gatherings when their dorms imploded with infections.

It is at such congregations that a contagious disease can spread like wild fire; construction workers infect domestic workers and they take the disease back to the homes of their employers. As they travel in trains and buses to these gatherings, they pose real risks of transmitting pathogens to others in an epidemic.

There are 261,000 and 293,000 foreign domestic maids and construction workers, respectively in Singapore. The current outbreak among the migrant workers started in a shopping mall and spread rapidly to thousands because of the high-density accommodation. The domestic maids who socialise with them were not affected, thankfully, but it may not be so in the future.

The thousands of construction workers travelling in trains, buses, and hanging out in shopping malls can be reduced if there is an offshore place for them to go to during weekends. This is worth considering in hindsight.

Four floating parks are proposed, each about 25 hectares strategically placed around the island. The park can be designed to be distinctively different from others on the mainland. The architectural, cultural, and culinary features of each group will be the main attraction. We know this important because we see Indians are drawn to Little India, Burmese to Peninsula Plaza, Thais to Golden Mile, and Chinese to Chinatown to purchase their provisions and satisfy their taste buds. There should be cinemas to show popular movies from their countries.Of course, being surrounded by water,they would not be complete without beaches and barbeque pits and tracks for jogging and biking and other wholesome activities.

The parks can be assembled to form any shape from hexagonal concrete blocks identical to those described above. A 25-hectare park would require 75 blocks. They can be designed for a life of 50 to 100 years. If not needed they can be rearranged (like logo sets) repurposed at little cost to be used for practically anything e.g. floating farms, school campus, marinas, pubs, and restaurants. The opportunity to make them pay for their manufacture during their entire life is limited only by one’s imagination.

Rapid response in event of epidemic

The coronavirus outbreak in Singapore affected migrant workers disproportionately. It delays the flattening of the curve and hence the re-opening of the economy. Millions lose their job. Billions of dollars will be doled out by the state to support its citizenry. Such cost and risk were not foreseen in existing designs.

Will SARS CoV2 return? Many believe it will mutate[3] to overcome the new vaccines. Like the Spanish flu, the second wave could be more deadly. Can we go back to the status quo? Probably not.

The proposal described above offers a rapid response to an outbreak of any contagious disease. The infected workers will be isolated on a single platform and that platform can be towed and moored at a safe distance nearby.

To enable this the monopiles are designed in two halves. The top half can be lifted off with a floating crane. The connectors between the platforms are also designed for easy removal. Mooring bitts are cast into the concrete decks for towing Station keeping catenary cable and anchors are stored in the platform in the deck below.

The container cabins can be configured to isolate two patients per container. Some cabins will be used to support health care workers. As an isolation facility,the occupancy per cabin would be limited to one person.

As a maritime nation, we have fleets of tugs and floating cranes to enable the decoupling and relocation to be performed in a matter of hours.

Choice of Material

There are three major components in this project: the platform, the cabins, and the mooring system.

Concrete is the material of choice for the platform. It requires hardly any maintenance It need not be docked for repainting. Over time, marine life will attach itself on its exterior below the waterline. It does not harm its durability and certainly adds to the eco attractiveness of the complex. Hexagon is the shape of choice because it is easy to scale up. The six-sided geometry offers rigidity in connection. It also offers more options to expand. Other hexagons can easily be attached to existing ones.

20-foot containers are chosen because it is easily available fully outfitted with lighting, windows, and toilets. There is a market for used containers should it be necessary to have them replaced.

There are several ways to moor the complex. The choice is affected by environmental factors: depth of water, currents, waves, and wind. Three monopiles are used in the example. Such piles can be easily fabricated in a shipyard. Their efficacy is proven in foundations for offshore wind turbines.

Construction

The casting of the concrete platform does not require a high degree of technical skill. It can be performed with extremely basic equipment on a waterfront in Indonesia, Vietnam, or Malaysia and towed to Singapore for assembly.

Alternatively, the second pontoon can be cast on the deck of the first and likewise for all subsequent ones. Launching would be easy; simply by ballasting the lower pontoon to float the upper one (temporary towers needed for stability.)

Container cabins can be bought from China and ship out to Singapore. It is easy to install them with floating cranes, of which there are many in Singapore.

The monopile can be made in two sections the lower half being driven into the sea and the upper half to be fitted over it after positioning the platform. With gravity base or catenary chains, other procedures are possible.

Financial viability

The concrete pontoons can be designed for at least 50 years durability. Shipping containers when used for transporting cargo last 12 years. As accommodation cabins, a 15-year service is not too much of a stretch. The building structure on the community centre may be replaced after 15 years.

Our cost estimate shows the complex is commercially viable, based on a rental income of about $150 per resident and an average occupancy of 80%. The concrete platforms may be amortised over 50 years, while the rest of the assets over 15 years.

The current dorm rates range from $300 to $400 pm per resident according to a press report[4] and where as many as ten people are packed into a room.

Mooring charges

The above cost does not include any mooring dues. There is none in existence for such structures.

In our opinion mooring charges should be waived by the authorities to encourage this development. There are good reasons for this. A similar virus incident must be prevented at all costs. The floating alternative frees up land which can be put to much better use. The congregation of hundreds of workers in various parts of Singapore is not a healthy situation or a pleasant sight. We should learn from the Little India Riot of 2013[5].

Relocating and repurposing

After it has served its purpose, land-based dorm complexes need to be demolished. With sea-based solutions, there are several sustainable and even profitable options.

Floating dormitories can be moved to any location around Singapore wherever they are most needed. Changi Terminal 5 would require the support of many thousand construction workers. So would the mega port at Tuas. Thereafter the large numbers of workers will be needed in the Keppel area for the construction of the Greater Southern Waterfront. The mobility of these dormitories reduces wasteful building and demolishing of dorms.

As mentioned, they may be repurposed with minimal cost to be used in so many ways during their designed life which with modern concrete technology can be up to 200 years. They can be retrofitted to increase their original designed loads so that they can support structures more substantial than dormitories.

Their versatility makes them an exceptionally attractive investment.

Members invited to participate

Thank you for staying to the end of this long message.

The dismal conditions at the workers’ dormitories that Co-vid19 has exposed is a national scandal. We must put it permanently in the past.

Many members of the Society are well equipped by qualification, experience, and research to offer disruptive innovations to solve this national predicament.

I invite them to illustrate the complex using computer-generated imagery.Members need not personally possess CGI skills. They may supervise others with the skills. Please get in touch with me if you wish to participate.

The Society plans to use the best images to raise public awareness and to make presentations to the relevant authorities.

Postscript: If members wish to submit an alternative design as a supplementary to the above, they may do so. The alternative must be accompanied by a comprehensive narrative to describe it.

President

Lim Soon Heng

5 May 2020

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[1] New BCA rules “Planning Infra Specifications for New FW Dorm Model”

[2]https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/discounts-cheap-prefabbricated-two-layer-student_62173138163.html?spm=a2700.details.deiletai6.9.2a1d78eblvRKTd

[3]https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-to-know-about-mutation-and-covid-19

[4] Report in SCMP dated 17 April, 2020

[5]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Little_India_riot