TNAG-2146-FCO40-3065-Hong-Kong-Port-and-Airport-Development-Strategy-(PADS)-1990 — Page 106

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 31 October 1990

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Financial performance, that is, its ability to provide an optimal balance of participation by the public and private sectors and the optimal implementation of works in view of financial constraints.

Well before the problem was redefined to include the port, we had, since the early 1970s, been seeking to identify the best site for a replacement airport. In 1973, the original Air Transport System Long Term Planning Investigation studied an initial list of 30 sites, which was subsequently reduced, by stages, to a shortlist of six. The six were —

1)

Tolo channel at the extrance to Tolo Harbour in the eastern New Territories;

2)

a reclamation site to the west of Lamma Island;

3)

a reclamation site to the east of Cheung Chau;

4)

a reclamation site of Nim Wan in Deep Bay, offshore and to the north of Black Point;

5)

a reclamation site in the Shum Chum River Delta, adjacent to the border; and, lastly,

6)

Chek Lap Kok.

The Chek Lap Kok site was selected as the preferred option and a feasibility study of it was undertaken in 1979 followed by a full Master Plan Study in 1982. With the exception of the Tolo channel site which was rejected in 1973 because of its poor operational characteristics and its adverse environmental impact on water quality in Tolo Harbour, all the other sites have subsequently been reviewed again. The western harbour sites in the area of Lamma and Cheung Chau Islands were reconsidered in the Alternative Replacement Airport Sites Study in 1989. The best site in that area was then compared with the Chek Lap Kok site during the PADS study which completed its work later that year. In 1981-83, while a master plan for Chek Lap Kok was being prepared, the Deep Bay sites and, in particular, the more attractive site of Nim Wan were also re-examined but found to be less desirable than Chek Lap Kok. The Nim Wan site was also recommended to Government in a report prepared by a group of Hong Kong academics this year. This prompted us to look yet again at that site. But this report and the subsequent review only reconfirmed our belief that Chek Lap Kok was the correct choice.

The problems with Nim Wan are many and serious and those recommending the site have not suggested how they might be overcome. The site is so close to the new Shenzhen airport under development that airspace co- ordination would be very complex; an airport at Nim Wan would create serious conflicts with a very important shipping channel serving the Pearl River;