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Good practice Imported

Eco-Link@BKE — Singapore's Rainforest Overpass That Ended Recorded Pangolin Roadkill on the Bukit Timah Expressway

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Singapore's S$10-million land bridge over the Bukit Timah Expressway reconnected two fragmented rainforest reserves; Sunda pangolin roadkill on that stretch fell from an average of two a year (1994-2014) to zero over the next 18 months.

>10 SGD million
Land bridge cost
2/year to 0
Sunda pangolin roadkill, average (1994-2014 vs Apr 2014-Oct 2015)
Eco-Link@BKE — Singapore's Rainforest Overpass That Ended Recorded Pangolin Roadkill on the Bukit Timah Expressway

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
National Parks Board (NParks), Singapore
Period
2011-2023
Keywords
road ecology, wildlife connectivity, urban biodiversity, pangolin conservation

Context

The Bukit Timah Expressway (built 1986) isolated the 163-ha Bukit Timah Nature Reserve from the larger Central Catchment Nature Reserve for over two decades.

Activities

Completed in the early 2010s at over S$10M, Eco-Link@BKE is a 75m x 50m vegetated land bridge planted with native rainforest species, restricted to research access, monitored by NParks with camera traps and nocturnal surveys.

Results

Sunda pangolins, which averaged 2 roadkill deaths/year on this stretch (1994-2014), recorded zero deaths between April 2014 and October 2015 after the bridge opened; civets, mouse-deer, macaques and other species have since been recorded using the crossing.

Conclusions

NParks cautions comprehensive usage data are not yet published, and researchers note similar viaducts elsewhere saw carnivores avoid the structures while only some herbivores used them.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
National Parks Board (NParks) monitoring team

Conditions for success

  • restricting bridge access to research use only
  • sustained camera-trap and nocturnal-survey monitoring

Common failure modes

  • some taxa (e.g. carnivores) may not use overpass structures despite investment

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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