2 -
interested parties in road opening that is, the public
utilities, the Highways Department, other government departments la
such as Water Supplies
Department, the police and on some
occasions, Transport. I do not think anything much would be
achieved by setting up a special department for this because
the road is also part of the highways system; highways
maintenance has to be for the purpose of repairing excavations
and for other purposes and I do not think it would be efficient
to set up a new organisation.
Mr. EDWARD HO: Sir, would the Government inform this Council
whether for major traffic routes a study has been made into
the feasibility of constructing service tunnels under roadways
to minimise road excavation, and, likewise, the construction
of removal panels in footpaths to avoid digging up of footpaths?
SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: Sir, a study was made in the
early planning of Tuen Mun New Town as to the possibility of
the town being served by common-user ducts, but the utilities
which must go under roads are varied and cannot all be put very
close to each other, particularly telephone lines and electric
cables, and each utility requires a certain amount of room round
it to effect repairs. The result is that the duct to cover all
utilities must be quite a substantial tube into which workmen
can enter. At the time when this was considered for Tuen Mun
it was found that this would
<
even in the context of the new
town being built on a green field site - add very substantially
to the cost of the road and it was for that reason discarded.
I feel that it is necessary to look at this one again, particularly