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14/7/67
66
Costain " favourably placed "
for £13m. Hong Kong tunnel
BY CHARLES SMITH, FAR east correSPONDENT
A CONSORTIUM led by Richard Costain is "favourably placed to win a £13m. contract to build a tunnel under Hong Kong harbour, a spokesman for the company said yesterday.
He was confirming a statement made earlier by Mr. Michael Montague, chairman of the BNEC- Asia committee, that Costain was almost certain to win the con- tract.
Mr. Montague, who has just returned from a three-day visit to Hong Kong, said that he under- stood that the terms of the contract had not yet been drawn up in full, but the Costain bid was regarded as much the most favourable. Other bids have been received from companies in Japan, Germany and elsewhere.
The Hong Kong tunnel will take about three years to build and will be operated by the Hong Kong Cross Harbour Tunnel Company in which the majority of the shares are held by two of the colony's leading trading companies, Wheelock Marden, and Hutchison International. The Hong Kong Government has the right to acquire shares in the company and is expected to exercise it.
Costain's partners in the Hong Kong project are the Healey Tibbets Construction Company, which is at present building a sub- merged tube tunnel in San Francisco and the Paul Y Con- struction Company of Hong Kong. The consulting engineers are Scott and Wilson Kirkpatrick and Partners.
Doing well
Mr. Montague said yesterday that apart from the tunnel contract British exports to Hong Kong appeared to be doing extremely well. Sales this year were running at about 30 per cent, ahead of
1966 when the total for the year was £53m.
Commenting on the present situation in Hong Kong, Mr. Montague said he thought that something ought to be done for the 5,000 unemployed workers who have been dismissed since the
middle of May for participation in strikes. He also suggested that the Government ought to be doing some advance planning for the early 1970s when there was a possibility of "natural" unemploy- ment developing in Hong Kong for the first time.
GUARDIAN 14/7/67 Costain group
favourite for
£13 M contract
A consortium Richard Costain looks like win- headed by ning the £13 millions contract to build a road tunnel linking Hong- kong island and Kowloon on the Chinese mainland, according to Mr Michael Montagu, head of the British National Export Council's Asia Committee, who has just returned from Hongkong.
Richard Costain was cautious in its reaction yesterday.
"We are cer- tainly favourably placed," a spokes- man said. The tunnel will be constructed by the "immersed tube method" by which prefabricated sections are sunk in dredged in the sea bed and linked a trench up under water.
The Costain consortium was in competition with Japanese firms for the contract. No other company submitted a tender.
British
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Costain in line
for £13m contract
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