news review
Plover Cove officially inaugurated
Hong Kong's HK$600 million Plover Cove reservoir, which ranks among the engineering feats of the world, was officially inaugurated by the Governor last month.
The reservoir (described in a series of papers by the engineers, Far East Builder Oct. 1967 - Feb. 1968) was created by damming a 2,750-acre inlet in Tolo Harbour and replacing the sea water with 37,000 million gallons of fresh water.
Plans are now in hand to raise the dam by 12 ft. to increase the reservoir capacity to 47,000 million gallons.
Further spectacular aspects of the scheme are the purification works and the vast network of tunnels devised to bring the Plover Cove water into the urban areas. The scheme is operated remotely from a central control room situated in the Sha Tin treatment works where information on the levels of the reservoirs and the flow at various points is displayed on a mimic diagram of the project.
New Director of Public Works for Hong Kong
Mr. J.J. Robson, at present director of engineer- ing development in the public works department, will succeed Mr. Michael Wright as Hong Kong's director of public works when Mr. Wright retires at the end of next month.
Mr. J.J. Robson
Born in Yorkshire, UK, in 1918, Mr. Robson was first appointed an engineer in the public works depart- ment in May, 1946. He was promoted to chief engineer in December 1956, and to assistant director of public works in April 1958.
In November 1961, Mr. Robson was promoted deputy director of public works, the post being retitled director of engineer- ing development in April 1965.
24-storey block will house Singapore Ministry
Singapore's Housing and Development Board is building what is believed to be the biggest office structure in S.E. Asia at Mount Erskine. The 300 ft. high, 24-storey block and a multi-storey car park will cost about S$17 million.
It will house the Minister of National Develop- ment, the Housing and Development Board, the Public Works Department and other departments of the Ministry which are now scattered at various sites. Some 4,000 people will work in the complex.
The T-shaped building will be clad in antl-glare windows, with anodised aluminium sunbreakers and vertical fins installed above sill level. Italian marble will be used on the podium face and glass mosaics on the main facade and end walls of the building.
Four escalators will serve the ground and first floor areas and ten high speed passenger lifts will
Mount Erskine offices
be installed. Office areas will have suspended acous- tic ceilings and demountable partitions.
The car park will have three storeys under- ground and a fourth at road level. There will be space for about 1,000 cars.
The project is designed by architects and en- gineers of the Housing and Development Board, headed by Mr. William Wong Wai Ying, the senior architect. The main contractor is Lim Kah Ngam.
Better standards for resettlement homes
New resettlement housing blocks which give oc- cupants as much living space as in Government low-cost housing estates have been designed by architects of Hong Kong's Public Works Depart- ment. The new blocks will have 35 sq. ft. for each adult, against the 24 sq. ft. of the present allocation.
The first two 16-storey blocks of the new Mark VI design will be built at the Pak Tin resettlement estate near Nam Cheong Street in Sham Shui Po. Construction will begin in March and be completed towards the end of 1970. The two blocks will pro- vide homes for 9,800 people.
Pak Tin already has some blocks of the older design. The whole estate, which is expected to be ready by 1974, will have three Mark IV eight- storey, five Mark VI eight-storey and nine Mark VI 16-storey blocks. The full population will be about 57,400.
Also included in the estate will be an adminis- tration building, five schools, four two-storey res- taurants and three kindergartens. All flats in the estate are designed for families of three, four, five and seven, with individual toilets and balconies.
The PWD is also embarking on its plan to raise
Far East BUILDER, February 1969