PWSC(1999-2000)11

For discussion
on 28 April 1999

ITEM FOR PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 706 - HIGHWAYS
Transport - Roads 41TR - MTR Tseung Kwan O Extension - essential public infrastructure works
    Members are invited to recommend to Finance Committee -

  1. the upgrading of part of 41TR to Category A, entitled "MTR Tseung Kwan O Extension - widening of the diverted Yau Tong Road" at an estimated cost of $18.6 million in money-of-the-day prices; and

  2. the retention of the remainder of 41TR in Category B, re-titled "MTR Tseung Kwan O Extension - essential public infrastructure works at Po Lam".
PROBLEM

The existing capacity of Yau Tong Road is insufficient to meet the additional traffic demand arising from the commissioning of the MTR Tseung Kwan O Extension (TKE) in 2002 and planned developments in Yau Tong area.

PROPOSAL

2. The Director of Highways (DHy), with the support of the Secretary for Transport, proposes to upgrade part of 41TR to Category A at an estimated cost of $18.6 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices for the construction of the essential public infrastructure works (EPIW) near Yau Tong Station of the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC)'s TKE project.

PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

3. The scope of 41TR comprises -

  1. Yau Tong Station sub-section

    1. widening of about 500 metres of the diverted Yau Tong Road from single 2-lane to dual 2-lane configuration;

  2. Po Lam Station sub-section

    1. landscape treatment to the embankment encasing the at-grade railway tunnels between Po Lam Station and Po Shun Road;

    2. a 6-metre wide, 36 metre-long footbridge to the south of Po Lam Station, connecting area 24 to the landscape area in (b)(i) above; and

    3. pedestrian walkways on the landscape areas in (b)(i) above.
4. We now propose to upgrade to Category A item 3(a) for Yau Tong Station described in paragraph 3 above. We propose to retain items 3(b)(i) to 3(b)(iii) in Category B for upgrading to Category A at a later stage.

JUSTIFICATIONS

5. As part of the TKE project, MTRC need to divert the existing Yau Tong Road, which is a single 2-lane carriageway between Cha Kwo Ling Road and Lei Yue Mun Road, since the section of the road near Cha Kwo Ling Road will be in conflict with the proposed Yau Tong Station1 . In April 1998, MTRC completed the Traffic Impact Assessment for the diversion of Yau Tong Road. The study showed that the proposed Yau Tong Road after diversion will not have sufficient capacity to meet the demands from additional traffic generated by the planned developments in neighbouring areas2 and the future Western Coast Road3 if no improvement works is carried out. We therefore propose to widen the diverted Yau Tong Road to a dual 2-lane standard under 41TR, in conjunction with the road diversion by MTRC under the TKE project. The existing traffic condition and projected volume/capacity (V/C) ratio4 in 2006 with and without the proposed widening is as follows -


V/C ratio
Yearwith
outwidening		with
widening
19990.8--
20062.00.5


6. We intend to entrust 41TR to MTRC for implementation in conjunction with the TKE 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

7. We estimate the capital cost of this part of the project to be $18.6 million in MOD prices (see paragraph 8 below), made up as follows -

$ million
(a) road widening and associated drainage works13.8
(b) On-cost payable to MTRC2.3
(c) Contingencies1.6
______
Sub-total17.7(at December 1998 prices)
(d) Provision for price adjustment0.9
______
Total18.6(in MOD prices)
______

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

Year$ million
(Dec 1998)		Pricead
justment
factor		$ million
(MOD)
1999 - 20008.21.026258.4
2000 - 20016.61.062177.0
2001 - 20021.41.099341.5
2002 - 20030.91.137821.0
2003 - 20040.61.177650.7
______________
17.718.6
______________

9. 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. The works will be included under a re-measurement contract without provision for price fluctuation to be awarded by MTRC.

10. We estimate the additional annually recurrent expenditure arising from the proposed works to be $0.2 million.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

11. DHy and MTRC consulted the Kwun Tong Provisional District Board and the Sai Kung Provisional District Board on 6 October 1997 and 7 October 1997 respectively on the TKE Phase 1 scheme, including the EPIW under 41TR. The two District Boards supported the project.

12. We gazetted the widening of the diverted Yau Tong Road together with the TKE Phase 1 scheme under the Railways Ordinance on 26 September 1997 and received no objection to the road widening proposal.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

13. DHy has undertaken a Preliminary Environmental Review (PER) to review the potential environmental impacts associated with the construction and operation of the proposed public infrastructure works. The PER concluded that none of the EPIW is a designated project under Schedule 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance. We will control noise, dust and site run-off nuisances during construction through the implementation of suitable mitigation measures in the relevant contracts. The Director of Housing has also conducted two environmental assessment studies on the operational impacts of the new Yau Tong Road and has undertaken to implement on-site mitigation measures for the residential developments.

LAND ACQUISITION

14. The project does not require any land acquisition.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

15. Following authorization by the Chief Executive-in-Council on 20 October 1998, MTRC executed the Project Agreement for TKE scheme on 4 November 1998. The TKE scheme comprises two phases. Phase 1 will provide a domestic Tseung Kwan O Line by late 2002, extending from the existing MTR Eastern Harbour Crossing and Lam Tin Station to serve Yau Tong, Tiu Keng Leng, Tseung Kwan O, Hang Hau and Po Lam. Phase 2 will provide a spur line, running from the Tseung Kwan O Station through Pak Shing Kok to a station and depot in Area 86, Tseung Kwan O.

16. We included 41TR in Category B in September 1998. We plan to entrust the widening of Yau Tong Road under 41TR to MTRC for inclusion in their works contract for the Eastern Harbour Crossing/Lam Tin Tunnel site formation, tunnels and associated works in July 1999 for construction to complete in August 2002. We plan to upgrade the remaining part of 41TR in October 1999 after the layout of the future Po Lam Station is finalized and commence the construction work of that part in early 2000.

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Transport Bureau
April 1999

1The diversion is compensation for the loss of the present Yau Tong Road due to the location of the new Yau Tong station.

2The planned developments include Redevelopment of Ko Chiu Road Estate, Redevelopment of Yau Tong Estate, Lei Yue Mun Public Housing Development and Eastern Harbour Crossing Site Home Ownership Scheme Development. When the developments are completed tentatively by 2006, the total population intake is about 76 000.

3In September 1995, we included 584TH "Western Coast Road" in Category B with latest estimated cost of about $3 billion at December 1998 prices. We are finalising the alignment of the route and currently plans to upgrade the project to Cat. A in early 2001 to start construction in 2002 and completion in 2006.

4The capacity here refers to the design capacity of the road. A V/C ratio equal to or less than 1.0 means that the road has sufficient capacity to cope with the volume of vehicular traffic under consideration. A V/C ratio above 1.0 indicates the onset of mild congestion; above 1.2 indicates more serious congestion with traffic speeds progressively deteriorating with further increase in traffic.0