ENG-1984 — Page 238

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

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under which the Lye Mun, Sham Shui Po and Victoria Barracks are to be relocated. Funds allocated in the 1984-5 Budget amounted to $2,169 million, some 75 per cent of which was spent in 1984.

Tendering continued to be active and competitive. Tender prices rose by about 10 per cent during the 12-month period to June 1984, reversing the decreases of the previous two years. During the same period, labour costs increased only marginally, by one per cent, while basic material costs rose by about six per cent.

The major project completed during 1984 was the Supreme Court Building in Queens- way. This 22-storey building, comprising a six-storey podium and a 16-storey tower block, houses 36 courtrooms and ancillary accommodation. A complex system of circulation around and between floors was required in order to keep judges, jury, defendants, lawyers and members of the public separate from one another. They have no other meeting point than the courtrooms.

The court building will be linked by a pedestrian walkway to the Queensway Govern- ment Offices now being built alongside. This office complex, comprising one seven-storey block and one 49-storey tower above a four-level carpark podium, is the tallest building project ever undertaken by the government. Work on the first phase began in mid-1983 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1985. The target date for completion of the entire project is late 1986.

Steady progress was made in completing foundation and basement work for a govern- ment complex near the Wan Chai waterfront. This will include two 49-storey office towers, a 30-storey building housing District and Magistrates' Courts and offices for other departments. The complex will also house a fire station. Construction of the superstructure for the offices, and the District and Magistrates' Courts, began late in the year and is expected to be completed in 1986.

The conversion of the old Supreme Court Building was one of the more unusual projects to get underway. This building dates from the first decade of the twentieth century. From the latter part of 1985 it will be the home of the Legislative Council, and the Office of the Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils (UMELCO). As the exterior of the building has been declared of historical interest, works are primarily of restorative nature, although the interior treatment and servicing of the building are to be extensively modified.

Hong Kong's medical facilities were expanded by the completion of the Prince of Wales Hospital and Li Ka Shing Polyclinic, situated on 10.5 hectares of reclaimed land in Sha Tin New Town. The 1 600-bed Tuen Mun Hospital, to serve the northwestern part of the New Territories, is under construction and due to be completed in 1988. Work is in progress on two tower blocks providing 840 additional beds at the Queen Mary Hospital. Plans for a new hospital in Chai Wan were approved and site formation for the polyclinic and staff quarters there began at the end of the year.

Various projects for the disciplined services were also completed. These included divi- sional police stations in Tsim Sha Tsui and Sau Mau Ping and at Hong Kong Interna- tional Airport. Divisional stations for Sha Tin, Tai Lam Chung, Chai Wan and Aberdeen were in the planning stage. To alleviate overcrowding at Stanley Prison, a maximum security prison to accommodate 480 inmates was completed at Shek Pik on Lantau Island. Site formation work for a new army camp on Clear Water Bay peninsula was completed. Military projects completed included an Education Centre Complex at Perowne Barracks near Tuen Mun and some 60 married quarters for Gurkha soldiers at various camps in the New Territories.