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ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSTRUCTION.
In view of what is stated before in this report,
and the fact that any tender must contain very large sums for
contingencies that may never arise, I suggest that it is worth
consideration whether the operations in this contract could not
be satisfactorily and more economically carried out by the
Government themselves, departmentally, The materials, the
design and the method of laying are all set out in the
specification and drawings.
It is possible the Government themselves, or the
Harbour Authorities, may be in possession of plant which could
be utilised temporarily for laying the pipes and dredging the
to obtain trench. At any rate, they are in as good a position/plant and
material as any contractor.
The total amount of actual material
required is not great, and could be ordered in the usual way.
The jointing of the pipes is a special operation,
and would be done by the makers of the pipes themselves on the site
whether the work is carried out by a Contræ tor or by the
Government.
The Government should be able to get a thoroughly
good Contractor's Engineer or Agent to supervise the construction,
the operations are simple, and they have as good a command of
labour as any Contractor.
If Messrs. Armstrong's estimate
Tender No.?
of £138,000, is correct, and none of the contingencies mentioned
by them arise to increase the cost, the balance between the actual
estimated cost and total amounts of tenders submitted is
considerable.
I suggest this method of looking at thematter
is worthy of careful consideration, although I put it forward
with diffidence, as I have not personally visited Hong Kong and have
not seen the actual site and surroundings of proposed
works,