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Tuesday, January 15, 1974

This company has already gained experience of the "quick-build"

methods in its current work on the Pak Tin and Tung Tau Estates in Kowloon,

where the techniques have enabled the time spent on building to be cut

from 21 days to six days per floor.

As at those two estates, the methods to be applied at Tuen Mun

are the use of mechanized steel forms, instead of the traditional wooden

forms, for the walls; and of the "Omnia" slab system for the floors. The

effect at Tuen Mun is to reduce what would previously have been a normal

contract period of 36 months to 28 months.

The spokesman added that as well as saving time and manpower and

facilitating the speedy training of labour, the new methods result in a

far better and smoother finish to the walls and floors.

The contract signed today is valued at $82.4 million. In financial

terms, this makes it the biggest single contract ever put out by P.W.D's

Architectural Office. The work should be completed by the end of June 1976,

The Tuen Mun Estate will embody the most progressive features of

integrated public housing, with ample social and recreational amenities built

into the complex.

Overall, it will house 47,000 people in five 30-storey cruciform

(or cross-shaped) blocks and one 7-storey block and will include such features as

primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, a welfare hall and associated

facilities, a restaurant, market and shop, recreation areas, and car parking

spaces.

Stage I of the project covers the construction of four of the housing

blocks, the restaurant, some shops, the welfare hall, three primary schools and

three kindergartens,

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