SITE (2) DEEP BAY, apart from its distance away from the urban areas has some formidable problems because of the obvious interference with the Shenzhen Airport, when it was first planned at Bei-Shik at the northern end of Deep Bay. Though the Shenzhen Airport has since been relocated (and now under construction) at Huang-Tin as per Primer Li-Peng's directive, the interference factor is still serious. In any case, since there have been couple plane crashes in aviation history because of birds being sucked into the jet engines at certain frequencies (New Foundland and Boston airports), and as Mai Po marshes are the Pearl River Delta's largest bird sanctuary, so even if China will agree to the use of their air-space for take-off and landing, Deep-Bay may not be suitable unless Mai-Po is reclaimed a move no doubt will attract enomorous objections from the Audubon Society, WWF, environmentalists and the public alike.
SITE (3) CHEK LAP KOK is aeronautically not the most attractive unless a lot of hills are chopped off to comply with the instrument landing runway requirements. But it can be done (and has to be done anyway because of wind shear considerations) and so is acceptable. But we have serious reservations about a just 900m runway seperation.
SITE (4) WESTERN HARBOUR is aeronautically very acceptable : no chopping of hills, no interference with Shenzhen or Macau airports, etc. But the Western Harbour is also ideal for port and land development use which is just as important, if not more important than the airport.
As the best decision is probably the best compromise, we concur with Government's decision and agree that the siting of the new airport at Chek Lap Kok is acceptable as the Western Harbour area can and needs to be used for other equally important
purposes.
(B)
ACCESSIBILITY OF THE CHEK LAP KOK AIRPORT WITH THE URBAN AREA
Until the year 2011, the PADS Proposal will envisage providing only a single ROAD + RAIL access road to Lantau via the 1430m TSING-MA BRIDGE. The rational on which why the consultants recommended this routing, as far as we understand from press clippings, are as follows:-
(1)
The new CHEK LAP KOK AIRPORT should have a direct ROAD + RAIL link with Kowloon and Hong Kong
(2)
Since 70% of the airport traffic originates from Kowloon, therefore Kowloon should be given prime consideration.
(3)
(4)
(5)
The existing MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY (MTR) along Nathan Road Corridor is already experiencing a peak load of 84,000 people per hour (highest in the world). The MTR TSUEN-WAN LINE cannot handle the airport traffic.
The existing 6 lane Tsuen Mun Highway, Tsuen Wan Road and Tsuen Wan By-Pass are all too congested, so the new airport traffic should avoid Tsuen Wan and be routed though the tough terrain of TSING YI Island via a very long bridge to MA WAN.
The new Cross Harbour Tunnel and the new Western Kowloon Reclamation will have to be built on a new corridor by-passing Kowloon to provide for the necessary new ROAD + RAIL link.
The consultants' arguments are very sound but their recommended solutions on traffic links show fundamental flaws. Some of these solutions are highly disruptive to the community. Some of the most essential components are on such tight schedules which would not only make the project unnecessarily expensive but will inevitably result in delays. The mode of access should warrant further examinations :-
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