HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 2 November 1988
香港立法局 一九八八年十一月二日
15
been a matter of concern in this Council as long as I can remember. I have read about questions relating to this. The Administration has on many occasions made special efforts to study how it could improve the situation. I could promise that a further such study would be made now. In view of Mr. CHENG's assertion that he considers that public convenience is being worse threatened and worse impinged on than previously, I shall certainly take this matter further. His second question is a good idea. His second proposal that we should put ducts at busy intersections at least is a good idea and it is one which has been adopted in major reconstructions. I have suggested that was the moment to wait for before putting in such ducts because in any case, in a major reconstruction, there is a good deal of disruption and it is better to probably add to rather than to create a major disruption simply for the sake of putting a ducting in.
MR. MCGREGOR: Sir, would the Secretary concede that the biggest single problem facing contractors today in regard to road opening and road closings might be the comparative lack of labour in the construction industry?
SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: Sir, I consider it may be the greatest special problem of the moment but, in any case, I have over the years witnessed the amount of complaints about road ducts and the amount of questions that are asked in this Council. But contractors have a great deal of other problems as well.
MR. MARTIN LEE: Sir, will the Government inform this Council what is the percentage of all road-works which are carried out at night time? Is it 1% or less?
SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: I have no figures on that. Only a limited number of road-works are suitable for that, and there are definite limitations on night work. But as I suggested we could certainly look into increasing that number. Certainly, as suggested by Mr. LEE, the number is small.
MRS. CHOW: Sir, in cases where excavation is done on roads where traffic is congested, is Government satisfied that the contractors concerned are taking adequate traffic management measures to eliminate additional congestion caused by such excavations, for example, by requiring light signals to be controlled manually during peak hours to avoid unnecessary additional congestion?
SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: Sir, there is, I believe, sufficient supervisory staff in the Highways Department for the numbers of road openings.