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TRANSPORT
progress was made on the New Territories Trunk Road. From the Lion Rock Tunnel, Sha Tin Road provides a 3.1 kilometre bypass of Sha Tin and links up with a further 1.8 kilometre section of road adjacent to the Sha Tin Racecourse. The next section from Sha Tin to Wo Hop Shek was opened by the Governor on September 24 and includes the Tolo Highway, built on reclaimed land along the coast to Island House, and the Tai Po Bypass which traverses the hills to the west of Tai Po. This part of the route involved the construction of several large multi-span bridges. These were built by an incremental launching method, whereby the bridge deck was manufactured on one side of the valley and jacked across, thus avoiding the need for the expensive temporary supporting structure normally necessary for a bridge deck under construction. The total length of this road, including the Wo Hop Shek interchange and the Fanling Bypass, which had been opened earlier, is 24.2 kilometres. The construction cost was $1,758 million. The next section of the route, towards Yuen Long, will provide a dual carriageway link with China at Lok Ma Chau.
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Another major section of the trunk road, the Tsuen Wan Bypass, opened in November. The bypass, which links Kwai Chung Road and Tuen Mun Road, includes about 2.5 kilometres of elevated dual carriageway along Tsuen Wan Bay. The total cost was around $400 million.
New Town Development
To ensure that an efficient and co-ordinated traffic and public transport system is provided for each of the new towns in the New Territories, comprehensive studies of travel requirements are carried out. Most of the new town transport plans reflect the twin policy objectives of economic use of roads and priority development of off-road mass transit systems.
Accessibility to Sha Tin, Tai Po and Fanling New Towns has been significantly improved by the fully electrified Kowloon-Canton Railway, and the opening of the Sha Tin-Fanling section of the New Territories Trunk Road. The Tsuen Wan New Town continued to be well served by the Mass Transit Railway, and the new Tsuen Wan Bypass, which was opened in November, is an important addition to the transport infrastructure. Land resumption for the construction of the Tuen Mun-Yuen Long Light Rail Transit project has also started.
Although a large volume of traffic in the new towns is moved by the railway system, bus services continued to play an increasingly important role, by providing feeder services to railway stations and ferry piers and serving settlements which are located away from the railway catchments, thus giving new town residents a choice of rail or road-based modes. The role of ferry services in the further development of Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Junk Bay will continue.
Provisions for pedestrians and cyclists are also given due consideration in the new towns. A good system of cycle tracks is provided in Sha Tin, Tai Po and Fanling. Grade-separated pedestrian facilities are provided wherever necessary as part of a highway development project, connecting existing settlements which may be affected by the opening of new high capacity roads, and also forming part of the improved pedestrian facilities in the town centre.
Improvement and Expansion of Public Transport
The expansion and improvement of public transport continues to be one of the principal elements in the government's policy of enhancing the mobility of the population.