news review
HK$350.5 million public works programme
Fifteen per cent of the Hong Kong Govern- ment's total budgeted expenditure for 1970-71 will be spent on public works. At HK$350.5 million, the programme is HK$65 million more than the revised estimate for this year.
Heavy outlays are imminent on such major pro- jects as the raising of the Plover Cove dam, exten- sion of the Sha Tin treatment works and pumping station, the airport runway extension, and an ex- panded and accelerated programme of roadworks and development schemes.
Biggest item in the public works programme is for buildings – HK$189 million for more than 200 reinforced concrete structures. Civil engineering works also total more than 200, and these will cost more than HK$96.5 million. Fifty waterworks pro- jects will absorb another HK$52 million.
The construction bill for low-cost housing estates totals nearly HK$43 million compared with this year's revised estimated expenditure of HK$50 million. New resettlement estates will cost HK$46.5 million as against this year's HK$36 mil- lion.
Construction of roads and highways in the new year will take up nearly HK$38 million for 72 new projects, while the bill for 34 drainage projects will be HK$6.5 million.
Aberdeen zoning plan revised
A revised outline zoning plan for the long term development of Aberdeen and the neighbouring island of Ap Lei Chau has been drafted by the Hong Kong Town Planning Board.
The plan covers a total area of about 2,040 acres and will, when approved, provide a statutory land use pattern and major road framework within which the use and development of the land may be legally controlled.
Some 86 acres is zoned for housing for an ex- pected population of about 200,000. Most of this land is situated north of Aberdeen Main Street and Tin Wan Street. One large residential estate is planned at Wong Chuk Hang and two other hous- ing estates on Ap Lei Chau.
Twenty-six acres are zoned for commercial and residential use at the junction of Shek Pai Wan Road and Tin Wan Street, the Aberdeen Main Street area and on both sides of the Main Street on Ap Lei Chau. Additional areas on the south west-
ern side of Brick Hill and on Ap Lei Chau next to the power station have been zoned for industrial use, to bring the total area set aside for this pur- pose to 99 acres.
One of the features of the road plan for the dis- trict is the provision for a bridge linking Ap Lei Chau with the central business and residential area of Aberdeen. In the long term development of the planning area, a reservation has been made for a possible future road tunnel link between Aberdeen and Happy Valley.
New idea in site offices
Site offices on construction sites in Singapore have reached a high degree of sophistication and the latest, built on the site for the new Develop-
i
Sophisticated site office
ment Bank of Singapore, is itself a miniature of part of the building to be erected.
It has been constructed to one-third the scale of the top portion of the actual 50-storey building.
Four flights of wooden stairs lead to a tiny 'board room' which can seat a dozen people. Below are rooms for the architects to work in cool com- fort. Brightly lit, the offices are fitted with the latest in modern equipment, including electronic adding machines.
Kai Tak contract soon
The first major contract for extension of the runway promontory at Kai Tak by about 2,530 ft. should be let by the end of July, with work begin- ning soon afterwards to enable completion of the whole project in 1973.
The HK$115 million extension - one of the biggest projects in the public works programme - is designed by Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and Part- ners, consulting civil engineers, who will also super- vise its construction.
Far East BUILDER, April 1970
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