ROAD ESTATE
WIE JOVENT
This M$20 million housing complex is now taking shape on a five-acre site at the junction of Henderson Road and Alexandra Road, Singapore. With a total of nearly 5,500 housing units, of one, two, three and four rooms, the project is expected to be completed in the next five years. The Housing and Development Board has started building 472 four-room flats in four 14- storey and two two-storey blocks. A five-acre site occupied by squatters quarters is being cleared for the next phase.
invited for the second phase of the project
construc-
tion of the northern, central and southern main canals and the whole scheme should be finished in 1970.
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The project will irrigate some 261,500 acres of land and provide double-cropping in the coastal plains of Kedah and Perlis. This will increase production of padi from the present 229,000 tons to about 654.000 tons.
Sir William Halcrow and Partners, London, are the consulting engineers to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, who are themselves designing the system of canals which distributes water from the three main canals on to the padi. (The scheme was described in the January 1965 issue of FEA & B).
BUILDING PLANS APPROVED
FIFTY-NINE plans for new buildings of all types in Hong Kong. Kowloon and the New Territories were approved by the Building Authority in February as compared with 55 in the previous month and 104 in the corres- ponding month in 1965.
During the same month, 90 completed buildings were certified for occupation. Of these, 19 were buildings for domestic purposes. 21 for non-domestic purposes and 50 for combined domestic and non-domestic use. In addi- tion, the Building Authority approved the demolition of 62 buildings.
Cost of new building work in the Colony during the month of February was $54,878,744. Another $3,288,083 was spent on site formation work. New buildings of all types erected totalled 59, including seven factories and godowns, two offices and shops, 47 houses and flats and three others.
ROAD COMPLEX ALTERED
Two of the seven flyovers proposed as part of Hong Kong Government's Garden Road complex (FEA & B. November 1965) have been eliminated from the plans. A Government spokesman stated that the decision was made because of limitation of space and excessive cost of the HK$12 million project. Traffic lights will be used instead.
One of the two flyovers was to lead from Lower Al- bert Road into the upper section of the proposed Kapok Drive and the other was to run in the opposite direction.
The original plan called for demolition of the old Casam Club premises and recovery of about 20 ft. of land from the site of the United States Consulate-General for the flyovers. In the new plans two sets of traffic lights will be installed at the junction of Garden Road
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and Lower Albert Road and in front of the U.S. Con- sulate-General, These lights will be interconnected to allow a steady flow of traffic in four lanes down Garden Road.
ENGINEER FOR SEATO BUILDING
A FILIPINO engineer has been appointed co-ordinator for the construction of the US$1 million headquarters build- ing of the South East Asia Treaty Organisation in Bang- kok. He is Dr. Victor A. Pulmano, a graduate of the University of the Philippines and SEATO Graduate School of Engineering.
Dr. Pulmano succeeds Mr. J. B. Clearwater, who has returned to New Zealand at the conclusion of his tour of duty with SEATO. Having gained a Ph.D in civil engineering from the North Western University, Illinois, in 1964, Dr. Pulmano has been working at the SEATO Graduate School in Bangkok as assistant profes- sor of structural engineering since last year.
OVERSEAS CONTRACTS FOR KOREANS
Six contracts have been gained Korean firms for overseas construction projects since January, the Construction Ministry reported last month.
The total value of the contracts is US$17.18 million. Largest is a US$5.22 million award won by Hyondae Construction Co. for a road-building project in Thailand.
Others include: Harbour dredging in South Vietnam Hyondae. US$5 million; harbour construction project in South Vietnam Taerim Industrial Co., US$2.5 mil- lion; oil tank construction scheme in Iwo Jima, Japan - Taerim, US$115,000; a US Air Force base construction project in Japan
Co.. Kong-Yong Construction US$345,000: and further harbour dredging in South Viet- Daehan Electric Construction Co.. US$4 mil-
nam
lion.
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COURSE ON CRITICAL PATH
A SHORT Course on the use of critical path techniques as applicable to the construction industry is to be started at the Hong Kong Technical College later this month.
Intended for senior and middle management, the course will comprise six evening lectures given by Mr. P. A. Smith, AIOB, who worked for a number of years with the Building Research Station and the National Building Agency in the UK.
The synopsis of the course is: History of C.P.M. and P.E.R.T.: definition of activities, events; drawing arrow
Far East Architect & Builder April, 1966