ENG-1973 — Page 196

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PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

In the first stage of the new town at Tuen Mun, a further 4.5 acres of land were formed by cutting and filling. Work continued on the remaining site formation, roads and drains including the trunk road between San Hui and Fu Tei. In the first stage of the new town at Shatin, a further 40 acres were reclaimed and another 13 acres formed from low-lying areas for housing, industrial and community uses.

Quarrying

There are six major quarries in full production under the government policy of concentrating stone production in large quarries let on long-term contracts. To meet estimated forecasts, progress was made during the year on plans to increase produc- tion of stone from these existing contract quarries and to let new long-term contracts for large quarries.

Regulations limiting the height of the rock faces to less than 80 feet were put into effect. Quarries are now being developed by the modern method known as 'benching' and the former method of working on high faces is being discontinued. This has resulted in safer working conditions and, when fully implemented, will increase production.

In line with this policy, the number of private quarries operating under the old system of Crown land licences was further reduced from five to four.

A good supply of crushed-rock aggregates for construction works was available throughout the year, although quarry production was severely hampered by some exceptionally wet weather.

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'At the two government quarries at Diamond Hill in Kowloon and Mount Butler on Hong Kong Island, which produce aggregates and road-surfacing materials for government projects, purchase of new crushing machinery and its installation to provide additional production capacity and to improve efficiency continued.

In conjunction with its role in the control of quarrying, the civil engineering office of the Public Works Department continued to operate the sand monopoly for the supply of building sand for sale to the public through its issuing depots. A new three-year contract was awarded during the year for the supply of sand dredged from seabed deposits in coastal waters not adjacent to the Hong Kong coastline under appropriate arrangements made with the Chinese authorities.

The materials-testing laboratories operated by the Civil Engineering Office of the Public Works Department carried out 86,000 tests on building materials; of these 9,000 were for private firms.

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Public Utilities

Electricity

Hong Kong Island and the neighbouring islands of Ap Lei Chau and Lamma are supplied with electricity by the Hongkong Electric Company while Kowloon and the New Territories including Lantau and a number of outlying islands—receive