NE DEPARTMENT LIBRAK
be adopted, and windows installed in pairs where possible, to facilitate cleaning. Block water meters will be fitted, and surface electrical wiring provided in flats: wiring in access corridors will be in ducts. Freight- type lifts (as at North Point) will be installed, with 'skip' floors.
DENSITY
The density envisaged in this scheme, as mentioned above, is 1,450 persons to the acre. The Authority's instructions to Mr. Cumine were to work to a density of this order and yet to provide adequate open space and other amenities. It is considered that the result meets these difficult stipulations.
ROADS
There are about 222,000 sq. ft. of roads, most of them 25 ft. wide, which serve as carriageways, pathways, and pavements-all in one. This comprises 29% of the total area of the site (the traditional form of housing in Hong Kong, with its alleys and scavenging lanes, has 30% communication area). The general principle is that these are purely estate roads with no short-cuts for through-traffic, thus reducing hazards for pedestrians. For this reason no access road from the Tai Po Road will be built to the upper levels of the estate, though there will probably be access therefrom by steps. Main access to the estate will be by Hing Wah Street, which is 120 ft. wide.
The road plan is based largely on the dictates of site formation, but with the exception of short stretches the roads have gradients of 1 in 15 or less, which means cycles may be used with ease. It is assumed that few if any tenants will own cars, but vehicular access is necessary, in particular for fire engines, ambulances, refuse lorries, etc., to all parts of the estate, together with turn-round points sufficiently large to cope with the biggest vehicles likely to enter the estate.
Names of flowers have been used temporarily for easy identification of roads on the plans, but as this method has been adopted elsewhere in Kowloon it may be necessary to make some changes later.
COST
On the basis of the present outline scheme the estate would probably cost between $45 million and $50 million to build, and with architects' and quantity surveyor's fees, and so on, it is unlikely that the gross building cost will fall far short of $53 million.
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