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1. Mulan ensures building of new spur line is on track

2. Engineering ways to value management

1. Mulan ensures building of new spur line is on track
Keith Wallis, The Standard 31 August 2004

Mulan, a massive tunnel boring machine (TBM) named after a fabled female Chinese warrior, will start work next month on the second of two tunnels being built as part of the Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau railway.

The massive machine completed the excavation of the first tunnel three weeks early in June.

The tunnels are part of a HK$2.8 billion contract awarded to French contractor, Dragages (HK) joint venture, by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) for the construction of the spur line's 5.2-kilometre- long Sheung Shui-Chau Tau section.

Phillippe Bouquet, Dragages (HK) joint venture project director, said the aim was to complete both tunnel drives by October next year ready for the installation of trackwork, along with power, communication, ventilation and fire protection equipment.

Bouquet said there hads been steady rather than spectacular progress, but he was obviously pleased the first complete tunnel drive had finished early.

As a result, construction of the spur line is on course to be completed and the link open to passenger traffic by mid-2007, providing a more convenient entry point for people visiting western Shenzhen from Hong Kong.

Mulan, which was used to construct the Kwai Tsing tunnels on West Rail, broke through on the second of two drives on June 21.

The 1,480-metre-long tunnel forms the western section from Chau Tau to Kwu Tung station.

The eastern approach - a 1,720-metre-long tunnel from Sheung Shui to Kwu Tung station - was driven through last February.

Following completion of the Chau Tau-Kwu Tong section, the main section of the TBM, including its large-diameter cutterhead was dismantled, transported to Sheung Shui and reassembled ready to start excavating the Sheung Shui to Chau Tau line tunnel.

About 800 people will be working on site during the peak of construction. Bouquet said Mulan was refurbished before it started tunnelling work at Sheung Shui.

A new cutterhead was shipped from Shanghai, while a new main drive was sourced from the original TBM manufacturer in France.

An extensive amount of noise protection was fitted to enable the machine to comply with tough regulations that limit the amount of noise to just 45 decibels.

Aside from the tunnels, which also include small sections built using cut-and-cover techniques, Dragages has two other main responsibilities - connecting the spur line to the East Rail line north of Sheung Shui station and the formation of advance works for Kwu Tung station.

He said linking the two railways would be particularly tricky.

This is because part of the existing East Rail line will be diverted on to new track that has been sandwiched between the existing live railway and the main pipelines carrying water from China.

Consequently there was a considerable amount of discussion between KCRC, the Water Supplies Department and other organisations even before construction began to ensure there was little chance of disruption to train services and disturbance to nearby residents.

With a train running past the site every two minutes, there was extensive monitoring of any ground settlement.

That included installation of a sophisticated warning system during the works to ensure there was no impact on train operations.

``The target is to give back the site to KCRC early February next year,'' Bouquet said.

This will allow KCRC to install trackwork and other systems prior to connecting the spur line with the main line.

By comparison, construction of much of the other civil engineering work has been straightforward.

2. Engineering ways to value management
Danny Chung, The Standard 31 August 2004

The government, developers and large contractors have been making increasing use of value management and engineering to slash unnecessary costs and improve value.

Value management was used on 18 projects over the past 18 months, Environment, Transport and Works Bureau spokeswoman Josephine Wong said. A further seven projects will have value management applied by next March.

The greater use of value management was urged in the Construct for Excellence report, published in January 2001 by the Construction Industry Review Committee, a government-sponsored group headed by Henry Tang, now financial secretary, that was appointed to look at ways of reforming the industry.

Value management and engineering is a system to develop and compare alternatives to get the job done with the greatest efficiency, economy and quality with the least delay. Workshops bring designers, contractors, subcontractors and clients together over several days to consider more efficient designs or ways of working on projects.

Despite the growing use of value management in engineering, there is still some way to go before it is widely accepted, City University building and construction department lecturer Dr Leung Mei-yung said. ``Many construction professionals do not know [about value management],'' she said, while those that may have heard of it may not understand what it entails.

This view was shared by Hong Kong Institute of Value Management chairman Tony Wilson, who said: ``People know what value management is in very general terms. They know it's a good thing, but they don't really know the details.''

The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors and City University jointly run training workshops on value management that are funded under the professional services development assistance scheme.

Workshop literature indicates that cost savings of 10 to 15 per cent can be achieved on most projects.