THE AIRPORT CORE PROGRAMME
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addition, environmental project offices have been established by the EPD to monitor and audit the cumulative effects of the construction works and to ensure that environmental issues are quickly identified and acted upon by the works agents.
Safety at Work
In 1996, the government strengthened safety measures to further encourage proactive safety management on site and to spread a safety culture among all the personnel involved in the ACP projects.
Management and working committee meetings involving senior officials and site staff were held frequently to address construction safety issues. Contracts with high accident rates were brought to the ACP Construction Safety Steering Committee chaired by the Secretary for Works for review on specific safety actions taken. Lessons learnt from accidents were circulated to the ACP participants.
The ACP Construction Safety Award Scheme is organised annually to commend ACP contractors, workers and safety personnel in sites which diligently executed their safety management and promotion programmes, and achieved good safety records. Various accident prevention and safety management training courses were provided for supervisory staff at ACP sites by the Labour Department, Fire Services Department and Marine Department. The Labour Department also restructured and strengthened its inspection team to improve compliance with safety requirements on ACP sites. In 1996, the industrial accident rate for ACP contracts was 60 reportable accidents per thousand workers per year, compared with the corresponding rate of 233 for the construction industry as a whole in 1995.
Community and Public Relations
The ACP Exhibition Centre at Ting Kau was well received, with more than 480 000 members of the public visiting it since the opening in January 1996. Seminars and briefings on the ACP projects were conducted for schools. Tours of the ACP Exhibition Centre were organised for schools and community organisations.
Briefings on the ACP were also given to a wide range of audiences, both locally and overseas. An ACP presentation was given at the 'World Congress on Project Management' in June 1996 organised by the International Project Management Association in Paris. Visits to ACP sites were arranged for members of the Executive Council, the Legislative Council, the Airport Consultative Committee, the two Municipal Councils, and the 18 District Boards; overseas government officials and members of parliaments; major business, educational, professional and financial groups; and members of the consular corps.
The Airport Authority provided a wide range of programmes throughout the year to cater for the high local and international interest in the new airport and about 13 000 people visited Chek Lap Kok. Press releases and photographs were issued throughout the year to publicise works progress or to highlight project milestones. Press conferences, briefings and site visits were arranged for the media. Promotional publications distributed included a brochure, a bilingual leaflet, regular issues of a newsletter and a fact sheet on works progress as well as the creation of an ACP home Page on the Internet. Updated videos on the ACP and on the construction of the Tsing Ma Bridge were produced.