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of Public Works in Hong Kong, appeared to desire the surface of the road made good with concrete, the system of construction submitted for your approval in the first instance consisted of a similar sub-structure to that of Singapore with a 3" layer of surface concrete between the rails and for 18" outside.
You are aware that Section 14 of the Ordinance reads as follows:-
"After and so soon as the said tramway has been constructed and laid down the Company shall at their own expense, at all times maintain and keep in good condition and repair with such materials and in such manner as the Director of Public Works shall direct, and to his satisfaction, so much of any road whereon any tramway belonging to the Company is laid as lies between the rails of the tramway and (where a double line of tramway is laid by the Company in any road at a distance of not more than four feet from each other) the portion of the road between the two lines of tramway, and in every case so much of the road as extends eighteen inches beyond the rails of and on each side of any such tramways. Except as aforesaid the Company shall not be liable to pay for the cost of the maintenance or repair of any road whereon the tramway is laid."
You will therefore see that no pecuniary risk in respect of the form of permanent construction to be adopted, is run by the Colony.
We have endeavoured to convince the Director of Public Works, who admits that he has not had any experience in the construction of permanent way for tramways, that what he is insisting upon is extravagant and largely in excess of the requirements, by supplying him with the opinions of those who have knowledge and experience of the form of permanent way construction we suggested.
For instance, Mr Joseph Kincaid of London, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who has been engaged in the construction of permanent way for tramways for considerably over twenty years says:-
"My firm has carried out a good deal of this sort of work in the East and we are of opinion that where the traffic on a road does not require the tramway to be paved then the best form of construction is a girder rail upon a continuous beam of concrete 6" thick and 18" wide."