2/
Under the leadership of Trafalgar House, AJCL is now preparing its bid for the suspension bridge, which is to be submitted by mid-December 1991. The
total value of the contract is expected to be about £650 million. A separate all-Japanese group led by the Nippon Steel Corporation will also be bidding.
These two groups are seen as the most serious contenders of the five invited
to bid.
In projects of this scale and engineering complexity political support can contribute to eventual success. The bridge is due for completion early in 1997 and will be seen as one of the last physical achievements of British
administration. This has led to a widely held view that Britain should have a
major share in the work, particularly given the crucial role of the British Government in breaking the log-jam on the airport.
Following the inter-governmental agreement it is also expected that PRC
companies will be involved in the project. AJCL is in discussion with several
potential PRC partners.
The Hong Kong Government has made it clear that it will not be influenced by political considerations, and intends to award the contract to the bid it
considers most favourable in technical and financial terms. This is
understandable, but we hope the Prime Minister will be able to emphasise in
both Hong Kong and China the strong British interest in this project which
should be recognised if some bids are comparable in technical and financial
terms. In certain circumstances the Hong Kong Government might decide to
ask the winning contractor to sub-contract some of the work to the
runner-up. This would help to achieve the tight timescale required and could
be advantageous on both technical and political grounds.
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