news review
HK to spend HK$300m on new projects
Hong Kong's public works programme for 1969/70 calls for a non-recurrent expenditure of HK$309 million on new buildings, civil engineering and waterworks projects.
Main items include HK$53 million for Govern- ment low-cost housing, $35 million for resettle- ment estates, $12 million for hospitals and clinics, $7 million for schools, $52 million for roads and bridges, and $38 million for waterworks projects.
The director of public works, Mr. J.J. Robson, said last month that the year 1968/69 was, for his department, 'one of re-appraisal'. In those 12 months, a planning and engineering feasibility study of a pilot scheme for urban renewal in the western part of the Central District on Hong Kong island was completed. And a report forecasting the colony's road requirements for the next 20 years was submitted to the Government by consultants last October.
"The effect of these proposals on public and private development had to be assessed in detail, resulting in modifications to some Government projects, and the starting of negotiations for acquisition of certain private properties in the path of redevelopment," Mr. Robson said.
During the year, the final report of the Water Resources Survey and another on the possibility of producing drinking water from the sea were com- pleted by consulting engineers. Also a detailed report on a scheme for a new reservoir at High Island in Rocky Harbour, to develop the water resources of the Sai Kung Peninsula was finished. Total expenditure on new construction in 1968/69 was HK$290 million, compared with $360 million in 1967/68, $480 million in 1966/67 and $590 million in the peak year 1965/66. Financial difficulties of some contractors, result- ing in temporary delays on works, plus low prices, contributed to the fall in expenditure on building projects.
Eleven-storey fire stations being built
Satellite fire stations throughout Hong Kong will soon help to bring about the Fire Services' ideal of a six-minute interval between alarm and their arrival on the scene anywhere.
Five such stations are in operation and three are now being built at a cost of HK$1.2 million each; they will occupy 10,000 sq. ft. sites in Fanling,
Standard satellite fire station
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King's Park and Cheung Sha Wan. A further 14 stations are being planned.
All three stations under construction will be 11-storey buildings with two bays, four applicances and living quarters. They will have more spacious quarters than existing stations.
Dusit Thani Hotel nears completion
One of the tallest buildings in South East Asia, the 23-storey Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok, is now nearing completion and is scheduled to open in January, 1970.
The hotel, sited on Rama IV Road near the Saladaeng intersection, will house 1,200 guests in 525 rooms. Its accommodation will include a banquet room for more than 850, six restaurants, three lounges, pool, garage, shopping arcades, and 17,000 sq. metres of office space in a separate multi-storey block.
The 23-storey tower is an octagonal-shaped reinforced concrete structure surrounding a central slipformed services core. It is being built by Japanese contractors, Ohbayashi-Gumi Ltd., to plans by Yozo Shibata of Kanko Kikeku Sek- keisha, Tokyo.
Pillar-enclosed pavilion for Korea
The Republic of Korea pavilion at Expo 70, Osaka, will consist of three blocks of buildings, connected by corridors and enclosed by 18 pillars, each 30 metres tall, linked together by a roof made of pipe frames.
The pavilion will resemble a giant refinery to symbolise Korea's rapid industrialisation. There will be a four-storey main building and an annex shaped like an old Korean sea craft. Visitors will be carried up to the fourth floor by an escalator.
Korea's future will be visualised in the 12 by 27-metre boatlike structure to be built on an artificial pond covering about a quarter of the total pavilion site of 44,800 sq. ft. Another structure called Multi-Purpose Hall will be a site for the presentation of traditional Korean dances and arts.
Far East BUILDER, October 1969