ENG-1995 — Page 306

THE AIRPORT CORE PROGRAMME

Government Facilities

Government facilities at Chek Lap Kok, which include the air traffic control complex and tower, meteorological, air traffic control, and postal mechanisation equipment and a police station, are estimated to cost $5,539 million in MOD. Work on these facilities is progressing well.

Formation of Land

In all, 1 669 hectares of new land will be created for the ACP. This consists of a 1 248- hectare platform for the new airport; 67 hectares of reclamation along the northern shore of Lantau for Phase I of Tung Chung new town; a 334-hectare reclamation at West Kowloon; and a 20-hectare section of a larger reclamation extending Central and Western Districts on Hong Kong Island.

The West Kowloon Reclamation will provide housing for 91 000 people, com- mercial space and vital road and rail arteries linking Kowloon with the new airport and north-western New Territories. The target completion date is mid-1997 and the project was 89 per cent complete at the end of 1995.

Phase I of the Central reclamation will provide opportunities for the development of Hong Kong's central business district, plus a site for the Airport Railway's terminus on Hong Kong Island. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-1997 and by the year's end it was 82 per cent complete.

Tung Chung new town will ultimately occupy two valleys at Tung Chung and Tai Ho on North Lantau, plus a coastal strip of reclamation in between. It is planned to house 14 000 people by 1997 and up to 200 000 people by 2011. Besides providing support services for the new airport, it will accommodate commercial and industrial developments and serve as an impressive gateway to Hong Kong for visitors. Housing will be a mixture of private and public rental, and the government's home ownership scheme. It will have several shopping centres; an office and hotel complex in the town centre, and an industrial area. Strong emphasis has been placed on community facilities, local and long-distance rail and bus transport links. Work on Phase I of the new town started in April 1992, with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 1997. The reclamation work has been completed and infrastructure works have begun. At the year's end, about 58 per cent of the project was finished.

New Transport Facilities

The five major highway projects in the ACP are designed to cater for the new airport's traffic and to relieve congestion on existing roads. They are the Western Harbour Crossing, West Kowloon Expressway, the Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi sections of Route 3, the Lantau Fixed Crossing, and the North Lantau Expressway. Together with the Airport Railway, these highways will provide a rapid transit system between the new airport, Tung Chung new town and the Central District, and stimulate developments on North Lantau.

New Highways

The Western Harbour Crossing will be a dual, three-lane, immersed-tube road tunnel. It will link the West Kowloon Expressway on the West Kowloon reclamation with a new section of elevated road in Hong Kong Island's Western District connecting to Connaught Road Central. Apart from providing a key part of the airport highway

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