PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
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railway platform and store for the new international mail centre at the Hung Hom railway terminus; a recreation ground in Kwun Tong and indoor games halls at the Cheung Sha Wan, Morse Park and Boundary Street sports grounds; a physical and recreational training centre at Gun Club Hill Barracks; and a market in Mong Kok.
In the New Territories, projects completed included: the second stage of the Tsuen Wan/Kwai Chung polyclinic; additions and improvements to Castle Peak Hospital; a divisional police headquarters and police station at Kwai Chung; and the reprovisioning of Emmanuel School at Sham Tseng.
Among projects under way at the end of the year were: a multi-purpose indoor stadium to seat 15,000 people, forming part of the new railway terminus complex at Hung Hom; another stadium, to seat 3,500 people, as part of a 12-storey sports complex on Hong Kong Island; piling work for the planetarium which will be the first building in the $200 million-plus Cultural Complex to be built on the waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui;_secondary technical schools in Kowloon and Kwai Chung; a technical institute at Cheung Sha Wan; piling work for a secondary school at Sha Tin; more modifications to the terminal building at the international airport; a funeral depot at Hung Hom; a second mental hospital at Lai Chi Kok; a swimming pool complex and park at Hung Hom, as well as a swimming pool complex at Aberdeen and diving and teaching pools at Victoria Park; the second stages of Kowloon Park and Hoi Sham Park; the second phase of Sham Tseng Village rehous- ing; piling work at HMS Tamar for the new headquarters of the British Forces in Hong Kong; and a high school for the children of Gurkhas serving in Hong Kong.
At the end of the year, work was in hand on the design, working drawings or contract' documents for more than 200 new projects. They included: the first stage of the San Po Kong technical institute; secondary schools at Kwai Chung, Lai King and Tuen Mun; a new cadet school for the Royal Hong Kong Police; a maximum security prison; the reprovisioning of Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home; community centres at Yau Ma Tei and Shek Yam; a crematorium and columbarium at Tsuen Wan; a swimming pool complex and park at Chai Wan; sports grounds at Cheung Sha Wan and Kwai Chung; and recreation grounds at Tsuen Wan and Tai O.
Throughout 1976 the volume of building work increased steadily in the private as well as the public sector. Tender prices remained reasonably firm over the year, with an overall increase of about 10 per cent. Most major contracts continued to attract some 20 tenders and pricing was keen.
Maintenance works on buildings in the public sector continued to expand and there was satisfactory progress with the construction of buildings for the Property Services Agency of the United Kingdom Department of the Environment. Private quantity surveyors and, to a lesser extent, private architects and consultant engineers continued to assist in the public building programme.
Metrication
In July, the enactment of the Metrication Ordinance opened the way for the metrication of the Buildings Ordinance as well as other ordinances. As from April 1, 1977 it will be mandatory for all new plans submitted for the approval of the Building