1 Chek Lap Kok may lose last natural coast for bridge project
Olga Wong, SCMP 4 June 2009

Chek Lap Kok airport island will lose its last piece of natural coast if the latest plan for a road to the bridge linking Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai goes ahead.

The Town Planning Board has been asked by the government to set aside the coastal protection area zoning for the 3 hectare strip of land on the island to enable the area to be reclaimed. This is among several rezoning requests for Chek Lap Kok that will be considered tomorrow.

According to a paper submitted to the board, about 1 hectare of the protection area would be replaced by a road connecting the bridge and a checkpoint. About 7,000 square metres would be used for a backup area for maintaining the linking road while 1.4 hectares would become landscaped buffers between the road and Dragonair Tower and CNAC Tower at the airport.

The coastal protection area was originally zoned to preserve a piece of the natural landscape of Chek Lap Kok island, which was flattened and massively extended to build the airport in the 1990s.

A source at the Planning Department said the original alignment of the linking road - a bridge connecting Tung Chung to the airport island - did not affect the coastline. But the alignment was changed after strong opposition from residents of Tung Chung, who said the bridge would be an eyesore.

Alan Leung Sze-lun, senior conservation officer of WWF, urged the government to explore alternative options to save the island's last piece of natural coast.