ENG-1993 — Page 310

THE AIRPORT CORE PROGRAMME

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The Finance Committee had further approved a sum of $289 million for key consultancies relating to the provision of government facilities at the new airport. These covered civil aviation and meteorological equipment, and advance site investigations. Consultancies for a mechanisation system for the Air Mail Centre and for terminal doppler weather radar and operational windshear warning systems have been awarded.

New Transport Facilities

The ACP includes five major highway projects designed to cater for the new airport's traffic and to relieve congestion on existing roads. They comprise the WHC, West Kowloon Expressway, the Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi sections of Route 3, the Lantau Fixed Crossing, and the North Lantau Expressway. Contracts to construct all five projects are now underway.

Together with the airport railway, these highways will also provide a rapid transit system between Tung Chung new town and the Central District, stimulating developments on North Lantau in the same way that the Kowloon-Canton Railway triggered development in the eastern New Territories when it was first double-tracked and electrified over a decade

ago.

Congestion will also be relieved in West Kowloon, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi. For example, when the West Kowloon Expressway opens, the peak hour traffic volume on the existing West Kowloon Corridor is projected to drop by as much as 40 per cent.

New Highways

The WHC will be a dual, three-lane, immersed tube road tunnel linking the West Kowloon Expressway on the West Kowloon reclamation with a new section of elevated road in the Western district on Hong Kong Island, connecting with Connaught Road Central. It will comprise a two-kilometre tunnel, associated approach roads, a major road interchange on Hong Kong Island and a toll plaza on Kowloon side. Aside from providing a key part of the airport highway route, it will relieve congestion at the two existing cross-harbour tunnels. On June 18, the JLG's Airport Committee endorsed the WHC project, and the Western Harbour Crossing Bill was subsequently passed by the Legislative Council in July. The formal project agreement was signed on September 2, with the Western Harbour Tunnel Company Limited, to finance, 'construct and operate the tunnel under a 30-year franchise. Physical work, which started in September, is aimed at completion by mid-1997.

The West Kowloon Expressway will link the northern portal of the Western Harbour Crossing to Lai Chi Kok, forming an important part of Route 3, with a dual, three-lane carriageway. It will serve developments on the West Kowloon reclamation and help relieve pressure on existing local and distributor roads in central and western Kowloon. Physical work on the expressway started in August. A further section of Route 3 will connect Kwai Chung with the Lantau Fixed Crossing through Tsing Yi, with a dual, four-lane viaduct in Kwai Chung. Three major contracts on Route 3, covering the construction of the Cheung Ching Tunnel, Kwai Chung Viaduct and Rambler Channel Bridge, were awarded in 1993 for completion in early 1997.

The two-deck Lantau Fixed Crossing, carrying a railway as well as roads, will comprise the Tsing Ma suspension bridge linking Tsing Yi to Ma Wan; viaducts crossing Ma Wan; and the Kap Shui Mun Bridge, with a cable-stayed design, linking Ma Wan to Lantau. The Tsing Ma Bridge will become internationally-known as a major Hong Kong landmark. Its