For discussion
on 28 April 1999

PWSC(1999-2000)10

ITEM FOR PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 706 - HIGHWAYS
Transport - Roads
40TR -West Rail (phase 1) - essential public infrastructure works for Kam Tin section
    Members are invited to recommend to Finance Committee -

  1. the upgrading of part of 40TR, entitled "West Rail (phase 1) - essential public infrastructure works for Kam Tin section" to Category A at an estimated cost of $546.9 million in money-of-the-day prices; and

  2. the retention of the remainder of 40TR in Category B, retitled "West Rail (phase 1) - essential public infrastructure works for Kam Tin section - remaining works".

PROBLEM

There are no existing road network and transport interchange facilities to serve the future Kam Tin (KAT) Station of the West Rail (phase 1) upon its commissioning in 2003.

PROPOSAL

2. The Director of Highways (DHy), with the support of the Secretary for Transport, proposes to upgrade part of 40TR to Category A at an estimated cost of $546.9 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices for the construction of the essential public infrastructure works (EPIW) for the Kam Tin Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC)’s West Rail (phase 1) project.

PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

3. The proposed scope of 40TR comprises -

  1. an at-grade public transport interchange (PTI) to serve the KAT Station of the West Rail (phase 1);

  2. a 2.1-kilometre long, 7.3-metre wide single two-lane-two-way access road linking the KAT Station with the West Rail Depot and the existing Route 3 Kam Sheung Access Road;

  3. a 920-metre long, 7.3-metre wide single two-lane-two-way access road (including a 80-metre long vehicular bridge section), linking the KAT Station with the western roundabout of the future Kam Tin Bypass 1 and Kam Tin Road;

  4. a 280-metre long, 3-metre wide cycle track and 2-metre wide footpath (including a 46-metre long footbridge section), linking KAT Station with Kam Tin Town; and

  5. a 850-metre long dual two-lane carriageway road, linking the KAT Station with Kam Sheung Road and the eastern roundabout of the future Kam Tin Bypass.

4. The part of the project we now propose to upgrade to Category A comprises items 3(a) to 3(d) mentioned in the above paragraph. We propose to retain item 3(e) in Category B now for upgrading to Category A at a later stage.

JUSTIFICATIONS

5. In December 1997, KCRC completed the West Rail Northern Area Technical Study and the West Rail Depot Technical Study which established the need to provide a package of EPIW, as described in paragraph 3 above, to tie in with the commissioning of the KAT Station of the West Rail (phase 1) in 2003.

6. We need to build a PTI with associated vehicular and pedestrian accesses to the KAT Station to facilitate convenient interchange with other modes of transport for commuters. This PTI will include a franchised bus station with eight bays, five green minibus bays, a resident coach bay and two taxi stands.

7. There are at present no existing roads connecting to the proposed KAT Station and the West Rail Depot. In order to integrate with the existing road network in Kam Tin, we need to provide a new access road to connect the KAT Station with the West Rail Depot and Route 3 Kam Sheung Access Road. We also need to build another access road to link the Station with Kam Tin Road and the western roundabout of the future Kam Tin Bypass. Upon commissioning, the proposed access roads will serve the Au Tau, Fairview Park and Ngau Tam Mei areas as well as the villages south of the West Rail Depot.

8. To facilitate residents of Kam Tin Town to gain access to the KAT Station on foot and by bicycle, we also propose to provide a direct footpath and cycle track between the Town and the Station.

9. As the Director of Territory Development (DTD) will construct a drainage channel 2 running across the KAT Station, we need to provide a vehicular bridge for part of the access road (linking the Station with the future Kam Tin Bypass) and a footbridge for part of the footpath (linking the Station with Kam Tin Town) crossing over the channel.

10. We intend to entrust 40TR to KCRC for implementation in conjunction with the Kam Tin section of the West Rail (phase 1) project in order to avoid interface problems between the two projects and to enable simultaneous completion of these works, by having one single contract package for related works in the same area. Past experience indicates that this arrangement could result in savings up to 10% of the estimated engineering cost.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

11. We estimate the cost of this project to be $546.9 million in MOD prices (see paragraph 12 below), made up as follows -

$ million
(a) PTI to serve the KAT Station 103.4
(b) Access roads to serve the KAT Station 276.6
    (i) access road to West Rail Depot/existing Route 3 Kam Sheung Access Road
148.9
    (ii) access road to the Kam Tin Road/ western roundabout of the future Kam Tin By-pass
127.7
(c) Footpath and cycle track to Kam Tin Town 11.1
(d) On-cost 3 payable to KCRC 64.5
(e) Contingencies45.6
______
Sub-total501.2(at December 1998 prices)
(f) Provision for price adjustment45.7
______
Total 546.9
______
(in MOD prices)

12. Subject to approval, we will phase the expenditure as follows -

Year$ million
(Dec 1998)
Price
adjustment
factor
$ million
(MOD)
1999 - 2000 33.21.0262534.1
2000 - 2001 167.21.06217177.6
2001 - 2002 190.71.09934209.6
2002 - 2003 101.91.13782115.9
2003 - 20048.21.177659.7
______________
501.2546.9
______________

13. We have derived the MOD estimate on the basis of the Government's latest forecast of trend labour and construction prices over the period between 1999 and 2004. KCRC will tender the works under a lump sum contract without price fluctuation.

14. We estimate the additional annually recurrent expenditure arising from the proposed works to be $10.8 million.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

15. DHy and KCRC consulted the Yuen Long Provisional District Board, the Pat Heung Rural Committee and the Kam Tin Rural Committee on 26 February 1998, 17 January 1998 and 28 April 1998 respectively on the EPIW under 40TR together with the West Rail (phase 1) project. Members of the Board and Committees supported the EPIW proposal in principle. However, members expressed concern on whether we could implement the proposed access road to the eastern roundabout of the future Kam Tin Bypass (item 3(e) in paragraph 3) in time. We intend to gazette the concerned access road under the Roads (Works, Use and Compensation) Ordinance by October 1999 after the detailed design of the road alignment is completed. We plan to commence construction of this access road in 2001 for completion in 2003 to tie in with the commissioning of the KAT Station in 2003.

16. We gazetted the EPIW under paragraph 3(a) to 3(d) together with the West Rail (phase 1) project under the Railways Ordinance on 3 October 1997. We received no objection to the EPIW.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

17. The PTI, access roads and ancillary footpath and cycle track works under items 3(a) to 3(d) in paragraph 3 will not cause long term environmental impact. For short term construction impact, we will control the noise, dust and site runoff nuisances to comply with established guidelines and standards through the implementation of environmental pollution control measures and environmental monitoring and audit programme in the contract.

LAND ACQUISITION

18. The proposed EPIW under items 3(a) to 3(d) in paragraph 3 above will affect approximately 39 660 square metres of private land (comprising 76 lots) which will be resumed under the West Rail (phase 1) project. The land resumption will affect 2 families and 6 persons. The Director of Housing will arrange re-housing for the affected families in accordance with the current policy. The proposed works also affect approximately 58 730 square metres of government land. The Director of Lands will be handing over the required land to KCRC in phases for construction of items 3(a) to 3(d) of the proposed EPIW.

19. The estimated cost of acquisition and clearance of the land occupied under items 3(a) to 3(d) is $56 million. KCRC will bear the cost according to the West Rail Project Agreement established between the Administration and KCRC.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

20. On 27 February 1998, Finance Committee (FC) approved an equity injection of $29 billion from the Capital Investment Fund to KCRC for construction of the West Rail (phase 1). We also informed FC at the meeting that the Government would need to carry out essential public infrastructure works in the order of $3,135 million for the West Rail.

21. Following authorisation by the Chief Executive-in-Council in September 1998, KCRC commenced construction of the West Rail (phase 1) in October 1998. The first phase of West Rail will provide, by late 2003, a domestic passenger railway line serving Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai, Kam Tin, Tsuen Wan West, Mei Foo and Sham Shui Po.

22. The Kam Tin Section of the West Rail (phase 1) includes the construction of the West Rail Depot, the KAT Station and a section of railway tracks connecting the Depot and the KAT Station.

23. On 12 March 1999, Finance Committee approved the upgrading to Cat. A of 42TR for the EPIW of the West Rail (phase 1) Tsuen Wan section. We are also submitting the funding proposal for 39TR for the EPIW of Sham Shui Po section to this meeting for endorsement. In addition, we plan to upgrade 37TR and 38TR for the EPIWs of the West Rail (phase 1) Yuen Long and Tuen Mun sections respectively to Category A in June 1999.

24. We included 40TR in Category B in September 1998. We plan to entrust the construction of 40TR to KCRC under the same works contact for the KAT station and the West Rail depot in June 1999 for completion in October 2003. As regards the remaining part of 40TR, we plan to commence the construction in 2001 for completion in 2003.

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Transport Bureau
April 1999

[1 The detailed design of 246TH �Kam Tin Bypass�is in progress. The current estimated cost of the project is $254.5 million in December 1998 prices. We plan to upgrade the project to Cat. A in late 2000 and start construction in 2001 for completion in 2003.]

[ 2 PWSC has endorsed DTD's proposal to upgrade part of 81CD as "Main Drainage Channel for Yuen Long and Kam Tin, Stage 2 - Kam Tin Road to Tai Kek Section�to Category A at its meeting on 14 April 1999 with an estimated cost of $410.4 million in MOD prices. The PWSC recommendation will be considered by the Finance Committee on 7 May 1999. The construction of the drainage channel will start in July 1999 for completion in March 2002.]

[3An on-cost at 16.5% of the project base cost (i.e. items (a) to (c) in paragraph 11) will be payable to KCRC for undertaking the technical studies, design and construction supervision of EPIW under 40TR.]