(2)
(3)
The PADS road tunnel can be shifted westward to connect Western District with Stonecutters Island (distance 2,700m), instead of the new reclamation. From the end of Argyle Street/Tong Mei Road area built a Eastern Island Corridor type 1,500m bridge (but bigger spans say at 100m) to Stonecutters Island. A 6 lane (instead of the 2 lane as mentioned by PADS) bridge will connect Stonecutters with Kowloon near Mei Foo. The additional costs of a longer tunnel + ARGYLE BRIDGE should be weighed against a saving in eliminating the costly and disruptive West Kowloon Reclamation. The Western- Stonecutters-Cheung Sha Wan Link will also relief congestion on Tong Mei Road, Ferry Street on Kowloon Side and Gloucester Road and the Cross Harbour Tunnel on Hong Kong side, as the Central- Western traffic to Kowloon need not go through Wanchai and east Kowloon to go northward.
DOWNTOWN AIR TERMINALS can be located on both sides of the harbour. One such DAT can be located in Tsim Sha Tsui East and one in Central, on reclamation. These terminals will make CLK AIRPORT within easy reach of the urban areas, as travellers can have their bags dumped and check-in formalities completed in either places with ease.
(C) WESTERN
LANTAU LINK
·
GREEN ISLAND
TUNNEL
-
PORT ISLAND
(1) ROAD + RAIL LINK TO PORT ISLAND
The next logical step would be to build a elevated ROAD + RAIL structure from the DAT through Western, on stilts across Sulpher Channel to Green Island, via a tunnel across Lamma Channel onto the Port Island and onto Lantau.
There will be 4 tracks on the rail link : 2 for locals and 2 for express to CLK AIRPORT, ending right in the basement of the passenger terminal and air-cargo terminal. The distance covered is 29kms. Based on 120 kph rail speed, the travelling time is 15 minutes. If the speed is 100 kph then the travelling time is 18 minutes:
(2) PORT ISLAND:
The 500 hectare PORT ISLAND is the key. Though the area and volumes are larger, the costs to reclaim this island is actually cheaper than the West Kowloon Reclamation because there is no compensation and no disruption. A lot of the unsightly cargo handling basin areas in the urban area can be relocated on a leisurely schedule on the shallow south sides of the PORT ISLAND. The north side of the PORT ISLAND already offers 16 completely finished berths, which Government can release in phases, in line with its Port Development Strategy. Access is readily available because of the loop link northward to Sham Tseng and southward to Hong Kong - Stonecutters - Kowloon.
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