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Traffic improvement measures in Southern District
Following is a question by the Hon Cheng Kar-foo and a reply by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Haider Barma, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
It is learnt that the Housing Authority will build three large Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) estates on Aberdeen Praya Road, Deep Bay Road and Ap Lei Chau, but the Southern District Board has unanimously agreed that it would object to the plan unless the Government undertakes to improve the overall transport network of Southern District, particularly to construct Route 7 and a second Ap Lei Chau Bridge, at an early date. In view of this, will the Government inform this Council :
Reply:
(a)
(b)
Mr President,
(a)
whether, in order to tie in with the development of the above HOS estates, the Government will implement the Green Island Reclamation Scheme in order to re-instate the Route 7 project in the Public Works Programme; if so, what the details are; and
if the answer to (a) is in the negative, whether the Government will include the construction of a second Ap Lei Chau Bridge in its plan to improve the transport network of Southern District?
From a long term planning perspective, we have recognised the need for that section of Route 7 from Aberdeen to Kennedy Town. However, as explained in my reply to this Council on 31 January, the implementation of this project is dependent on the proposed Green Island Reclamation. As no decision has yet been taken regarding that reclamation, we cannot proceed with the Route 7 project at present.
To accommodate the additional traffic generated by the new housing development proposals, a package of traffic improvement measures including junction improvement and signalisation, as well as construction of flyovers and footbridges, will be implemented in Ap Lei Chau, Aberdeen, and Wong Chuk Hang. Our transport studies indicate that these projects, together with other road improvement programmes in Pok Fu Lam and Kennedy Town, should be able to cope with both the present and the projected traffic to and from Southern District, including that generated by the 3 proposed housing developments.