News Stories:

Click-on these handy "jump links" to quickly access the news item
you're looking for.

1. Tenders sought on seven more projects in slope-safety drive

2. Island super-jail plans thrown into disarray by environment officials

1. Tenders sought on seven more projects in slope-safety drive
Keith Wallis, The Standard 13 July 2004

The Civil Engineering and Development Department is continuing with its landslide prevention scheme with seven new projects.

Work on six of the schemes will start in September and last two years.

The 10-year programme aims to complete the upgrading of 2,500 sub-standard government slopes and retaining walls and the screening of safety at another 3,000 private slopes and walls by 2010.

Under the latest batch of contracts, the department plans to repair 158 slopes throughout Hong Kong.

Bids will be returned on Friday for three contracts.

These comprise a Geotechnical Engineering Office scheme to upgrade 24 slopes and retaining walls in Kowloon, the New Territories and on Hong Kong Island.

Fugro (Hong Kong) will receive tenders for the repair of 28 slopes and retaining walls in Kwun Tong, Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung.

Tenders are to be sent to Maunsell Geotechnical Services for the repair of 30 slopes and retaining walls in Kowloon and the northern New Territories.

Maunsell will also receive bids a week after that, on July 23, for work to 30 slopes and retaining walls on Lantau, Cheung Chau and Lamma.

The office is also calling for bids by August 6 for a scheme involving 12 slopes in Kowloon, the New Territories and on the island.

Tenders are to be sent to Scott Wilson on August 13 for the upgrading of four slopes in Kwai Tsing.

The department is also inviting 28 firms of consulting engineers to submit tenders by next Wednesday for a contract to carry out site investigations, detailed design and supervise construction of slopes on Hong Kong Island.

The assignment involves updating data for 125 slopes and retaining walls and the repair of about 30 government slopes and detailed studies on about five privately owned slopes and retaining walls.

The firms invited include Atkins China, Babtie Asia, Black & Veatch, C M Wong and Associates, Greg Wong & Associates, Halcrow China, Hyder Consulting, Mott Connell, Mouchel Parkman Asia and Pypun Engineering Consultants.

2. Island super-jail plans thrown into disarray by environment officials
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 13 July 2004

Plans for the Hei Ling Chau super-jail suffered a major setback yesterday after the government's environment advisers attacked the site selection process.

The criticism came as security officials briefed the Advisory Council on the Environment on the proposal whereby 80 hectares of land at Hei Ling Chau would be reclaimed for a $12 billion prison complex housing about 7,200 prisoners.

Council members criticised officials for not considering enough sites during the selection process and cast doubts on the scale of the development.

They urged the Security Bureau and planning officials to study whether the development could be split up so that a wider variety of sites could be considered.

It was a serious blow to the proposal as the council can reject the environmental assessment report and recommend the project's rejection by the director of Environmental Protection.

"If the scale can be reduced or the 80 hectares be split up into two or three parts, this could widen the choices of sites available," council chairman Lam Kin-che said after the meeting.

Professor Lam said security officials insisted during the briefing that the 80-hectare proposal was optimal and the island remained the best site available after a city-wide hunt for alternatives.

But some members questioned the officials' reasons for ruling out closed areas next to the border with Shenzhen.

Tseung Kwan O was suggested by one member as another option.

Public views are still being sought on the proposal but there will be no more feasibility studies before the consultation ends.

In 2002, security officials slashed the original scale of the super-jail by half after legislators opposed the project on security grounds.

When the officials chose Hei Ling Chau and abandoned another shortlisted site at Kong Nga Po on the border, it sparked outrage among residents on nearby Lantau Island, which would be linked to Hei Ling Chau by a bridge.

Officials said there was an overriding interest in keeping the Kong Nga Po site for cross-border economic integration.