1 Gammon Tamar bid wins top mark
STAFF REPORTER, The Standard 18 July 2007

Construction of the controversial Tamar development project has taken a step closer after the government issued a non-binding Letter of Intent yesterday.
Out of the four tenders received for the project - the Gammon, Hip Hing joint venture - has obtained the highest combined technical and price scores, a government spokesman said.
"As the tender exercise will not be completed until the contract is awarded, the letter does not guarantee award of the contract," he said.
Under the Central Outline Zoning Plan, about two hectares of the Tamar site will be open space, while 2.2 hectares are zoned for government, institution or community buildings.
Sixty percent of the Gammon-Hip Hing project's overall score is based on quality considerations, including functional and technical aspects, design and aesthetic, planning, sustainability and environmental factors.
The remaining 40 percent is determined by price considerations.
The design has part of the Central Government complex and the Legislative Council complex encroaching up to the open space zone, without compromising the two hectares of open space.

2 Tamar winner picked, but is it public's choice? Government panel selects arch design for its new offices
OLga Wong and Chloe Lai, SCMP,18 July 2007

The towering, arch-shaped design known as The Door has been chosen from four contenders for the Hong Kong government's new headquarters on the harbourfront at Tamar - though it may not have been the option most popular with the public.

The government yesterday announced a selection panel had picked the proposal by a Gammon-Hip Hing joint venture, but did not make public the preferences expressed online and by visitors to an exhibition of models of the designs. It would not say whether the public's opinions would be revealed later.

The choice was generally welcomed by professionals, but critics said keeping secret the views of the 13,000 people who filled in comment cards on the designs flew in the face of Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's pledge of greater engagement with the public on decision-making.

A contract to build the headquarters, a building for the Chief Executive's Office and Executive Council, a new chamber for the Legislative Council and a building for lawmakers and the Legco secretariat will be awarded this year. Work is expected to be completed by 2010.

The four proposals were given scores by the selection panel; 60 per cent of the score for each was for quality and 40 per cent for cost. Sources close to bidders said the winning bid's price was at the top end of the budget, which is HK$5.2 billion.

The government said a letter of intent had been issued to the winning bidder but that this did not mean it would get the contract. The selection panel would need to reach a decision about that, which would depend on Gammon-Hip Hing getting the approval of the Town Planning Board.

Planning permission is needed since under its plan, part of the Legislative Council building encroaches on an area designated for open space. The developers must apply to the board for rezoning of that part of the site. They must also meet the tender requirement of keeping 2 hectares of open space at the Admiralty site, formerly a British naval dockyard.

"Whether the board will approve the application depends on the accessibility of the open space [in the company's design]," Chinese University architecture professor and planning board member Bernard Lim Wan-fung said.

"For example, will it be open to the public 24 hours? Will we be able to walk directly to the waterfront?"

He said the chosen proposal was the best of the four because it provided better air flow and was a more elegant design.

Professor Lim urged the government to publish the public's views on the four proposals and the scores the panel, headed by the chief secretary, awarded them. Albert Lai Kwong-tak, chairman of the Hong Kong People's Council for Sustainable Development, agreed. "If the government does not announce the public's opinions ... it will be detrimental to public enthusiasm [for the project]," he said.

Vincent Ng Wing-shun, former vice-president of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, said the winning design integrated the complex into the open space.

"It's just like the government is embracing the public, it's welcoming," he said.

Other architects, who declined to be named, likened it to the new CCTV headquarters in Beijing, also in the form of an arch, while others said the distance between offices in the two sides of the arch might hinder communication among staff.

Gammon Construction chief executive Thomas Ho On-sing said it was too early to comment.

3 Hung Hom able to cope as hub: KCRC
Anita Lam, SCMP 18 July 2007

The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation yesterday expressed confidence that its Hung Hom station will be able to cope with vastly increased traffic when it becomes the terminal for several railway networks.

The station will become the meeting point for all southbound lines when the Kowloon Southern Link is completed in 2009. When the Sha Tin-Central link is finally built, the station will become the meeting point for at least three networks.

A KCRC spokeswoman said the station would be able to cope with the extra load. She did not give a figure but a document submitted to the government in 2003 projected an extra 190,000 passengers a day by 2016. The 3.8km Southern Link will complete the network from the West Rail terminus in Tuen Mun to Lo Wu.

To cope with the extra West Rail trains, the KCRC launched a HK$130 million project last April to realign rail tracks for better train deployment. Two of the four tracks on platforms 2 and 3 will be dedicated to the southbound and northbound traffic for West Rail, while East Rail will keep the remaining two tracks. A spokeswoman said the arrangement would allow direct transfer for passengers switching from East Rail to West Rail.

KCRC civil projects engineer Frankie Ng Sze-ho admitted leaving just two tracks for East Rail trains would push handling capacity to the limit, but it would allow the cross-switching of tracks between East Rail and West Rail if the need arose.

When work on the tracks, due to be finished by the end of the year, is completed, the station's maximum capacity will increase from 22 trains an hour in each direction to 27.