Ming Court
air-conditioned rooms, each with television. There will be about 100 shops in the shopping concourse, occupying a floor area of 60,000 sq. ft.
Ming Court is being built by Town and City Pro- perties and will be run by the Goodwood Park Hotel Group. Piling work has started and the building is ex- pected to be completed in two years.
The main contract
will be let shortly.
Architects for the project are Kumpulan Arkitek, 22b South Canal Road. Singapore.
CASTING BASIN TENDERS
TENDERS for construction of the huge casting basin need- ed for the Hong Kong cross-harbour tunnel project have just been issued.
The 600 ft. basin or dry dock will be the first major contract of the project and will cost about HK$10 mil- lion. The 450 ft. tunnel sections, weighing 30,000 tons cach, will be prefabricated in the basin before being floated out and sunk into position. It is understood that the basin site will be at Laichikok.
A spokesman for the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Co., Ltd. said last month that work`on the casting basin would be- gin in July. The main contractor for the tunnel would have been selected by the time the basin was ready in order that work could start immediately on construction of the tunnel sections.
Borehole investigations along the route of the pro- posed tunnel, linking Causeway Bay and Honghum, is being carried out by Gammon (HK) Ltd. and George Wimpey and Co., Ltd., London.
RULES FOR TALL BUILDINGS
NEW rules governing safety precautions in tall structures are soon to come into effect in Taiwan. They have been prepared by the Provincial Department of Reconstruction.
The rules require that tall buildings with a height of 15 metres or more must have a space of at least 100 sq. metres on each floor and must use fire-proof materials for walls, partitions, supporting columns, flooring, roofs and staircases.
They also stipulate that all tall buildings must have an adequate number of fire escapes and fire-fighting faci- lities. A minimum spacing is also laid down for seats and aisles in public theatres.
BANGKOK ROADS PLAN
A TEN-YEAR plan for building new roads and improving present roads in the metropolitan area of Bangkok at a total cost of 2,140 million baht is soon to be submitted to the National Economic Development Board.
The Government would subsidise the project with annual budget allotments to a total of 1,000 million baht and the remainder would come from Bangkok and Thon- buri municipal funds.
Two new bridges are proposed across the Chao Phya
Far East Architect & Builder May, 1966
River, linking Bangkok with Thonburi, within the first five years beginning 1967. The bridges would cost 70 million baht each and would be designed by the Public and Municipal Works Department,
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 March, as compared with 106 in the corresponding month in 1965.
During the same month, 92 completed buildings were certified for occupation. Of those, 13 were buildings for domestic purposes, 29 for non-domestic purposes and 50) for combined domestic and non-domestic use. In addi- tion, the Building Authority approved the demolition of 65 buildings.
The cost of new building works in the Colony dur- ing the month of March was HK$115,972,726. Another $5,182,456 was spent on site formation work.
FIRST STEEL-FRAMED BUILDING
THE first multi-storey steel-framed building to be erected in the new Makati commercial area of Manila is nearing completion.
Known as the Aquinaldo Development Corporation Building, the ten-storey structure will cost about 20 million Pesos. Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Co. are fabricating and erecting the structural steel framing and installing the prestressed concrete floor beams.
used.
Approximately 3,500 tons of structural steel is being Curved box beams, 20in, deep by 12in. wide on
Aquinaldo Building under construction
each floor, provide a rounded corner for the L-shaped building.
Floor area of the building is 2,700 sq. metres. The architects are Gabino de Leon and Associates.
SURVEYORS' NEW OFFICERS
MR. J. V. Moore, has been elected chairman of the Hong Kong and China Branch of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Other officers elected at the branch's 37th annual general meeting last month were: Mr. R. C. Clarke, vice chairman; Mr. J. G. Stean, hon secretary; Mr. J. Hsi, hon treasurer; and Mr. F. A. Fosler, Mr. H. Miller, Mr. E. H. Rowley, Mr. P. W. Sanderson and Mr. C. M. Steward,
committee members,
NEW PACE OFFICERS
MR. Demetrio Sipuyoc has been elected president of the Philippine Association of Civil Engineers, and Mr. Ramon G. Hechanova has been elected vice president.
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