Jewel Changi Airport

The Client

Originally born from a need to expand Terminal 1 at Changi Airport, the Jewel is a large nature-themed shopping and entertainment complex. The site spans 1.46 million square feet, featuring award-winning architecture, five storeys of indoor gardens and the “Rain Vortex” – the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.

Plans for the Jewel were first announced in 2013 as part of Changi Airport’s target to double its capacity over the next 10+ years. Since its grand opening in 2019, the site has seen well over 50,000,000 visitors, averaging around 300,000 per day.

The Challenge

In Singapore, security is taken very seriously, which is understandable for a country that has a high terror threat level.

In 2017, the Singapore government brought in the Infrastructure Protection Act, requiring sites deemed critical national infrastructure to be made more secure with measures to protect the perimeter, access points and technology infrastructure.

Even before this, the country’s commitment to security was obvious, with Changi Airport being a prime example where passenger safety has been at the forefront of terminal projects over the last eight years.

Over the last ten years, ATG has built its reputation as a trusted security supplier in the region. Our history in Singapore and our ability to manufacture in-country have made us the ideal partner for prestigious projects like the Jewel.

The Objective

Having previously supplied HVM products for other terminal projects at Changi Airport, ATG Access were brought on to the project to provide and install the hostile vehicle mitigation solutions for the Jewel complex.

With any large airport project, the main challenge is ensuring minimal disruption to a site that is open 24/7 and sees footfall from thousands of passengers each day. To reduce any potential interruption to services, it is integral that the work could be completed as quickly and discreetly as possible.

For such a high-profile project only the highest quality perimeter protection solutions would be suitable. One of the reasons that ATG Access was brought on onboard is its long history of providing physical security for some of the biggest airports around the world.

Over the years we have helped protect such prestigious sites as Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and Hamad International Airport, as well as countless more throughout the UK. We had also previously worked with Changi Airport in providing HVM solutions for the three terminals that connect to the Jewel.

This, combined with our experience working on large-scale security schemes meant we were well-positioned to meet Jewel’s unique security requirements.

The Solution:

ATG Access’ innovative shallow mount technology allowed us to provide robust security solutions that could be installed across the site with as little disturbance as possible.

Shallow mount bollards are an ideal solution for sites where installing full-depth fixed bollards is just not feasible. Also, shallow mounts have several other benefits over fixed variants.

Due to their unique design, our shallow mount bollards do not require reinforcing bars, as they are instead fixed to steel plates. As well as requiring fewer groundworks, this substantially saves on time and disruption to the site, with it taking only 1-2 hours to install each bollard.

This means that a row of around 36 shallow foundation bollards (roughly 50 meters of perimeter protection) could be installed in a single night, further minimising any disruption to the site.

For the Jewel project, we installed Shallow Mount Bollards and Removable Bollards.

Most removable bollards are usually offered as an “engineered solution”: their performance-based off of the shallow mount or traditional depth bollard variants.

In the case of the Jewel project, however, it was important that the bollards were crash test certified to guarantee that the site is protected against potential vehicle attacks.

To meet our client’s needs, we worked closely with our partner in Singapore to test and certify the removable bollard proposed for the Jewel Changi Airport project.

The Results

With a site as iconic and architecturally distinct as the Jewel, aesthetics are of utmost importance. This extends to the appearance of physical security products. To ensure that our security solutions meet our client’s needs, we can tailor the design of the sleeves to any specification to blend into the environment.

We are firm believers that security doesn’t need to be ugly and have developed several creative bespoke sleeves for various sites over the years. In the case of the Jewel Changi Airport, the bollards we supplied for the project were given sleek stainless-steel sleeves to match the modern design of the building.

With extensive perimeter security measures in place, the millions passing through Changi Airport can feel safe attending Singapore’s newest and perhaps most remarkable attraction.