March_1968 — Page 5

this third report before discussing possible ways and means of financing the proposed rail project.

Mr. Leslie M. Frink, project director of the consul- tants, told a press conference last month that if mass transport could pay for itself anywhere in the world, it could in Hong Kong, where it would be possible to build and operate the system with revenues derived from a very low fare rate, and to pay a modest return on money invested.

This was possible, he said, because the system was expected to carry about 21⁄2 million passengers a day by High densities of population, low car ownership 1986. and long business and working hours made Hong Kong ideal for efficient and profitable mass transport.

Mr. A.M.J. Wright, Director of Public Works, told the conference that the PWD was preparing for the eventuality that the rail system would be constructed. He said that all present construction, both Government and private enterprise, was examined in the light of this, so that nothing would be built which might frustrate the construction of the line.

A report on the two published Hong Kong transport studies appears on page 51.

SURVEY TO AID FUTURE PLANNING

THE State and City Planning Office of the Ministry of Law and National Development has begun a three-month survey of the central area of Singapore to collect essential information for future planning and redevelopment.

A team of 40 field workers will record data of all activities and uses for each plot and every building in the area. Working in pairs they will enter every house- hold and commercial premises to record structural details, residential arrangements, toilet facilities, cooking points, employment and motor vehicles used.

The survey will cover 2.000 acres of the inner city, containing over 17,900 parcels of land.

Data compiled will be used to determine the existing level of social and economic activities for day to day planning and control of redevelopment in the inner city. It will also be used to forecast the city's growth pattern so that plans can be made to provide for future spatial requirements and to improve the living and working en- vironment of the city.

PENANG INDUSTRIALISED HOUSING PROJECT

A CONTRACT Worth M$19.5 million for the construction of low-cost housing in Penang by industrialised building methods was signed last month by the Malaysian Minister of Local Government and Housing. Mr. Khaw Kai Boh. The successful contractor was the German-Malaysian joint venture company, Hocktief-Chee Seng.

Under the contract the firm will be responsible for implementing the second pilot industrialised low-cost housing scheme at Rifle Range Road. This provides for the construc- tion of six blocks of 17-storey flats and three blocks of 18-storey flats, totalling 3,735 units.

More than 20,000 people will be accommodated in the project. Rents will be between M$40 and $50 per unit.

Mr. Khaw said that industrialised construction was being introduced to supplement and complement the exist ing building capacity so as to meet the growing demand on the building industry.

Such methods could only be used where repetition of identical units and standardisation of building types were possible, he said. Traditional meth- ods would thus continue to be used whenever these conditions were not fulfilled and there would always be demand for made-to-measure buildings.

Far East Architect & Builder March, 1968

BUILDING PLANS APPROVED

IN January the Building Authority approved a total of nine new building plans of all types in Hong Kong. Kowloon and the New Territories. In the same period, 67 newly-completed buildings were certified for occupation as compared with 40 in December. Of these new build- ings, three were for domestic purposes. 22 for non-domes- tic purposes, and 42 for combined domestic and non- domestic use. A total of 26 dangerous buildings was under complete demolition. In addition, the Building Authority also approved the demolition of seven buildings. Cost of new building work in the Colony during the month of December 1967 was HK$53,030,638, while a total of HK$1,821.497 was spent on site formation work. In the same period 75 new buildings of all types were erected. This total includes 12 offices and shops, 60 houses and flats, and three other buildings of mixed accommodation.

BRUNEI PORT PROJECT

ABOUT twenty international contractors have been invited by the Brunei Government to tender for the first phase of the S$40 million Muara port project.

The contract will involve the dredging of an access canal through Pelempong Spit. Millions of cubic feet of seabed material will be dredged and deposited for re- clamation and coastal protection, including a bund con- necting the spit to the Muara Island.

The dredging, planned to be completed before 1969. will give a 36 ft. depth access through the Pelompong Spit for ocean-going ships to the proposed deep-water port at Muara, about 20 miles north of Brunei Town.

PROMOTION CAMPAIGN BY ARMSTRONG

THE third of a series of Far East promotional meetings being staged by the Armstrong Cork Company will be held at the Mandarin Hotel, Hong Kong on March 6. Mr. Rodger Holton, international development manager of the company, and Mr. Harry J. Laubach, Far Eastern manager, are touring Asian capitals with a display of two new types of acoustic tile. They visited Singapore and Bangkok in February and will go on to the Manila Archi- tectural Centre on March 13 and 14.

The new tiles are Tegular Minatone, a lay-in ceiling system with individual panels that extend below the grid to create a bold, dimensional effect, and Ceramaguard, a water and sag resistant acoustical tile. New patterns in vinyl floor sheeting and tiles and a new range of cork wallpapers are also included in the display.

Model of Rifle Range Road industrialised housing project

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