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New satellite town for Gin Drinker's Bay
WORK has been started on the second stage of Hong Kong's most ambitious reclamation project to date the Kwai Chung Develop- ment Scheme which will provide more than 500 acres of new land for industry as well as for housing.
This new industrial and residential area will form part of the fast- expanding industrial town of Tsuen Wan which, when finished. will have a total population in the region of one million people.
When all three stages of the Kwai Chung scheme are complete. this development project. like Kwun Tong. will be another step forward in Government's programme aimed at solving the Colony's most pressing long-term proble --the desperate shortage of land and a critical need to keep housed and employed its multiplying population.
A Japanese firm of contractors. the Maeda Construction Co., Ltd.. has been granted a contract worth $59.300.000 for the execution of the engineering works which comprise the second stage of the Kwai Chung development scheme.
Last November, the Government called for international tenders for the works to be carried out in Stage II. These involve the terracing of the Lai Chi Kok and Texaco head- lands and the construction of a new motor road along the coastline from Lai Chi Kok to Castle Peak Road at the head of the Kwai Chung Valley.
The reclamation and the road works associated with it will change the whole stretch of coastline between Lai Chi Kok and Tsuen Wan. The
now motor road will form another western road artery between Kowloon and the New Territories.
Although Tsuen Wan lies only five miles to the north-west of Kowloon. the now
town will have its own housing estates. shopping centres and schools to make it a satellite town. entirely self-contained.
The first stage of the Kwai Chung development scheme. which began just over 19 months ago, is now complete. In this phase. access roads have been built into the Lai Chi Kok and Texaco headlands. Other engine- ering works include the construction of sites for reservoirs and a resettle-
ment estate.
The whole screme is designed and supervised by Messrs. Scott & Wilson. Kirkpatrick and Partners, who have been employed by the Hong Kong Government as consult- ing engineers for this scheme. in in collaboration with the
the Public Works Department,
The second stage is the largest of the three development stages and is expected to last for three years.
It involves the terracing of the Lai Chi Kok and Texaco peninsulas to provide some 115 acres of formed land for residontial use. The ex- cavated material, totalling about six million cubic yards. will be dumped into Gin Drinker's Bay to provide another 105 acres of formed land for both residential and industrial use.
The terraces on the two headlands will be served by a network of roads with a total length of about nine miles. The main roads and bus
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER VOLUME 18. NUMBER 2
routes will have three-lane carriage- ways 36 feet in width and the minor roads will have two-lane carriageways 24 feet in width and varying widths of footpaths.
New Coastal Motor Road
To give satisfactory road com- munications to this new development area, a new motor road will be built along the coastline from the Lai Chi Kok Road to Texaco Road.
This coastal road. with dual car- riageways 24 feet in width. will cross Lai Chi Kok Bay by means of a bridge and then run along the coast- line of the Lai Chi Kok peninsula, across the reclamaion and finally join the Texaco Road near its exist- ing junction with Gin Drinker's Bay Road.
The motor road will form another western road artery between Kowloon and the New Territories. It will be virtually level over the whole of its length except for slight gradients at the approach to Texaco Road. It will be designed for traffic travelling at an average speed of 50 miles an hour,
A dual carriageway road will link the new motor road with Castle Peak Road at Kwai Chung.
This latter dual carriageway road will provide the backbone of the road layout for the reclaimed area. It will run on the roof of a reinforced concrete culvert which will drain the catchment area to the north of Castle Peak Road and the hill terraces and reclaimed land.
The reinforced concrete culvert will be about 8,500 feet in length and about 50 feet wide.
Typhoon Shelter for small craft
To form the hill terraces to a
desirable pattern, the consulting engineers have prepared a plan for the excavation of a considerable quantity of rock which will be used to build the seawalls included in the scheme and to construct a new typhoon shelter on the eastern side of Rambler Channel.
The typhoon shelter will provide over 1.750.000 square feet of shel- tered water for fishing boats and other craft based at Tsuen Wan. Tsing Yi Island and the adjacent
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