Johor Bharu Causeway, Singapore to Malaysia - postcard c.1970s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  The Causeway at Johor Bharu - linking Singapore to Peninsular Malaysia
• Publisher:  Great Wall Photographers Sdn Bhd KL, Kuala Lumpur
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Johor Bahru (also spelled Johor Baharu, Johor Baru,^{[nb 1]} or Johore Bahru; abbreviated as JB) is the capital city of Johor in southern Malaysia, located north of Singapore. Johor Bahru is the southernmost city on the Eurasian mainland.^[2] Pasir Pelangi, the royal village, is located within Johor Bahru.

The city in itself has a population of 1,334,188^[1] as of 2010, while the metropolitan Johor Bahru, also known as Iskandar Malaysia, has a population of 1,730,000.^[3]

The Johor–Singapore Causeway (Malay: Tambak Johor, ???? ????) is a 1,056-metre causeway that links the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia across the Straits of Johor to the town of Woodlands in Singapore. It serves as a road, rail, and pedestrian link, as well as water piping into Singapore.

The causeway is connected to the Sultan Iskandar Building in Johor Bahru, the new checkpoint replaced the Causeway Checkpoints on December 16, 2008. The complex is linked to Johor Bahru's Inner Ring Road which intersects with the Skudai Highway (Federal Route ). On the Singapore side, the causeway leads to the Woodlands CIQ Checkpoint, which replaced an older Woodlands Checkpoint in 1998. It then connects with the Bukit Timah Expressway.

The causeway carries 60,000 vehicles on a typical day, with particularly bad traffic congestion on the eve of public holidays.

The Johor–Singapore Causeway was completed in 1923 after four years of construction. Approximately $17 million (in 1924 terms) of the construction cost was borne by the Johor government.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} It was partially severed in 1942 during the Second World War, to prevent the Japanese army from invading Singapore. However, it was rebuilt once the Japanese had captured Singapore. During the 1964 Race Riots, the causeway was closed from 22 to 26 July 1964.

The Johor–Singapore Causeway was the first land link between Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. The second, called the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link, was completed in 1998.

The new Woodlands Checkpoint, built partially on reclaimed land, was opened in 1999 to accommodate the increasing traffic flow and the soot which had enveloped the old customs complex over the years. The old road leading to the causeway was diverted. The old customs complex, built in the early 1970s, at the junction between Woodlands Road and Woodlands Centre Road closed after the new checkpoint was opened in July 1999, although the motorcycle lane remained opened in the morning until 2001. The new Woodlands Checkpoint also houses the facility for clearing train passengers into Singapore (the Woodlands Train Checkpoint), which was previously at Tanjong Pagar railway station. The relocating of train-immigration facility to Woodlands caused disputes between the two countries.

Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi officially launched the opening of Bangunan Sultan Iskandar on 1 December 2008. The new customs complex went into full operation on 16 December 2008 at 12 midnight sharp, closing down the old customs complex.

There were several calls by Malaysians to remove the Causeway. The first call occurred in the Johor state legislative council when the speaker said the Causeway was ""more a hindrance than anything else"" while a port should be built close to Johor Bahru to rejuvenate the city's economy. The state of Johor currently already has developed ports including Pasir Gudang and Tanjong Pelapas.

The second demand came in 1986 when Israeli President Chaim Herzog visited Singapore. At that time, the Singapore Government was criticised by Malaysian politicians and the press for allowing his visit (Interestingly, one of Singapore's Founding fathers, David Saul Marshall, was Jewish and the island has strong links with Israel).

Under the former Mahathir administration, the Malaysian government scheduled to build a new customs, immigration and quarantine complex on a hilltop near the Johor Bahru railway station. A bridge is planned to link the new customs complex with the city square. The project was named Southern Integrated Gateway (Gerbang Selatan Bersepadu) by the government. The project was awarded to a construction company, Gerbang Perdana. During the construction, one of the two underpass channels located at the end of the old customs complex had been blocked. Roads exiting from the old customs complex have been diverted. The design envisages a re-direction of traffic flow to the new customs complex after the completion of the proposed new bridge to Singapore. The old customs complex will be torn down once the new customs complex begins operation. All this while, no agreement had been reached with the Singapore Government on replacing the causeway with a proposed new bridge.

The proposals on replacing the old causeway with a new bridge has resulted in a political rift between the two countries since the early 2000s. The Malaysian government envisioned that disagreement by Singapore to participate in the project would result in a crooked bridge above Malaysian waters with half the causeway remaining on the Singapore side. However, Singapore has hinted that it might agree to a bridge if its air force is allowed to use part of Johor's airspace. Malaysia refused the offer and negotiation is said to be still ongoing.^[8]

In January 2006, Malaysia unilaterally announced that it is going ahead to build the new bridge on the Malaysian side, now referred to as scenic bridge.^[9] The construction of the new scenic bridge on Malaysian side officially began on 10 March 2006, when the piling works of this bridge was completed,^[10] but on 12 April 2006, construction was halted and scrapped by Mahathir's successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, with growing complications in both negotiation (the conditions set by Singapore were strongly opposed by the people of Malaysia on grounds of national sovereignty) and legal matters with Singapore.^[11]

Most recently, Badawi has said that ""in [the] future, there won't be just one or two bridges between Malaysia and Singapore.""^[12]

In early November 2006, the Sultan of Johor called for the demolition of the link, reasoning that the Causeway is undermining the state economy.^[13][14]

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: rest of the world

sub-theme=asia

county/ country=singapore

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted