ENG-1996 — Page 337

THE AIRPORT CORE PROGRAMME

Formation of Land

In all, 1 669 hectares of new land will be created the 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 reclamation at the Central waterfront.

Tung Chung new town will ultimately occupy two valleys at Tung Chung and Tai Ho on northern Lantau, plus a coastal strip of reclamation in between. It is planned to house 15 000 people by the end of 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. Work on Phase I of the new town started in April 1992, with completion scheduled for the second quarter of 1997. The reclamation work has been completed and infrastructure works are well under way. At the year's end, 87 per cent of the project was finished. Population intake is expected to commence in mid-1997. The West Kowloon Reclamation will provide housing for 91 000 people, commercial space and vital road and rail arteries linking Kowloon with the new airport and the north-western New Territories. The target completion date is mid- 1997 and the project was 97 per cent complete at the end of 1996.

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 (excluding works entrusted to the Airport Railway Hong Kong Station Contract) was substantially completed in 1996, ahead of the target completion date of mid-1997.

New Transport Facilities

The five major highway projects in the ACP are designed to cater for traffic to the new airport and to relieve congestion on existing roads. They are the Western Harbour Crossing, the West Kowloon Expressway, the Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi sections of Route 3, the Lantau Link (formerly known as the Lantau Fixed Crossing), and the North Lantau Expressway. Together with the Airport Railway, these highways will provide a high-speed transport link between the new airport, Tung Chung new town and Central District, and will 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 route, it will relieve congestion at the two existing cross-harbour tunnels. Construction work started in September 1993. The last of the 12 tunnel units was sunk into position in Victoria Harbour in April 1996. The project was 97 per cent complete at the end of 1996 and is targeted for opening by mid-1997.

The West Kowloon Expressway will run 4.2 kilometres from 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

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