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COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
public transport road vehicles available. In addition, a fleet of 42,798 commercial vehicles is constantly moving goods essential to the economy and 122,858 private vehicles contribute to ever-growing usage of the territory's 1,092 kilometres of roads. More people and more movement have made suffocating road congestion in the near future a major threat that the government is having to face. Hence the decision in 1975 to proceed with the initial system of the mass transit railway for the most seriously threatened urban areas and in July, 1977, to extend this system westward across crowded Kowloon. Hence also the Report on the Comprehensive Transport Study, published in late 1976, as a framework for future transport planning and management. Using these starting points and recognising that careful planning for the future is essential, a number of other major traffic and transport studies have been put in hand. These include investigation of the problems of the northern coastal corridor of Hong Kong Island and proposals for modernising and expanding the surface railway system. All the material thus derived is being sythesised into a White Paper on Transport Policy to present plans for transport facilities for the years ahead.
Roads
As a result of the exceptionally dry summer, progress on highway works was very good. During the year, $270.6 million was spent on major projects and $45.2 million on improvements and maintenance. The total length of roads maintained by the Public Works Department now stands at 1,092 kilometres, of which 343 km are on Hong Kong Island, 330 km in Kowloon and 419 km in the New Territories.
On Hong Kong Island, work began on constructing the Ap Lei Chau Bridge, which will link the island of Ap Lei Chau with Aberdeen and facilitate industrial and residential development there. Construction also began on a further stage of the new road through Aberdeen, from Shek Pai Wan Road to the wholesale fish market. Improvements to the road link between Aberdeen and Western district continued in the form of widening Pok Fu Lam Road from Mount Davis Road to Pok Fu Lam Reservoir Road, while work started on constructing a flyover connecting Pok Fu Lam Road with Des Voeux Road West. As part of a scheme designed to improve traffic flow between Central and the Mid-Levels, the construction of flyovers at both the upper and lower ends of Garden Road progressed satisfactorily; the Robinson Road – Castle Road junction improvements were completed and opened for use and con- struction started on an elevated road and flyovers at the Robinson Road – Old Peak Road - Glenealy junctions. Good progress was maintained on extending the Canal Road flyover into Happy Valley and on improving the Queen's Road East - Stubbs Road junction and the widening of Tin Lok Lane and Morrison Hill Road. Good progress also was made on the detailed design of Stage I of the Island Eastern Corridor, forming the first part of a new road from Causeway Bay to Shau Kei Wan.
In Kowloon, traffic flow in the Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Tei districts was im- proved with the completion of an elevated road from Gascoigne Road to Tong Mi Road. Other projects completed in this area included the Salisbury Road extension and the U-turning loop at the Chatham Road interchange. Improvement and recon- struction works were completed in Canton Road, Cornwall Street and Lung Cheung Road, and new roads and drains were provided for the Cheung Sha Wan industrial area. Work continued on the East Kowloon way project with the completion of a