For discussion PWSC(96-97)31
on 1 July 1996

ITEM FOR PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE
OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 703 - BUILDINGS
Government Offices - Intra-governmental services
56KA - Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices building

Members are invited to recommend to Finance Committee the upgrading of 56KA to Category A at an estimated cost of $1,784.2 million in money-of-the-day prices for the construction of a government offices building in Cheung Sha Wan.

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PROBLEM
PROPOSAL
PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE
JUSTIFICATION
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS
LAND ACQUISITION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

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PROBLEM

There is a general shortfall of government office accommodation to meet existing and projected demand. Furthermore, the existing government office site at Canton Road Government Offices, built in 1971, is under-developed by today’s standards.

PROPOSAL

2. The Director of Architectural Services (D Arch S), with the support of the Secretary for the Treasury, proposes to upgrade 56KA to Category A at an estimated cost of $1,784.2 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices for the construction of a government offices building in Cheung Sha Wan.

PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

3. The project comprises the design and construction of a joint-user, general government office complex together with a primary health care centre. Facilities to be provided include a basement car park, a four-storey podium complex and a sixteen-storey office tower. The site will be developed to the maximum plot ratio with a gross floor area of 55 800 square metres.

4. The primary health care centre comprise the following facilities -

1. a general out-patient clinic with ten consulting rooms;
2. a family health service centre with four consulting rooms;
3. a skin clinic with four consulting rooms; and
4. a dental clinic for civil servants and dependents.

JUSTIFICATION

5. The proposed government office complex will provide badly needed additional general office space to meet identified and projected demand, as well as accommodation for a primary health care centre for the Department of Health.

6. The Canton Road Government Offices building and the former Government Dockyard/Workshop form one very large site. With an existing plot ratio of only 1.9, the site as a whole is grossly under-utilised. The Dockyard/Workshop has now been vacated. We plan to relocate the offices in the Canton Road Government Offices building to the proposed government offices building in Cheung Sha Wan in order to release the site for redevelopment. At a plot ratio of up to 8, we expect the sale of the site to generate a significant premium considerably in excess of the cost of this project.

7. With the proposed government office complex, we expect to achieve a total rental saving of about $228 million per annum. This amount includes both actual rental savings from relocating government departments in leased premises to owned accommodation and notional rental savings from additional office space available which would otherwise need to be leased in order to meet the shortfall.

8. Sham Shui Po district is served by four Government health institutions, namely Cheung Sha Wan Jockey Club Clinic, Nam Shan Health Centre, Sham Shui Po Public Dispensary and Shek Kip Mei Health Centre. We established the latter two clinics in 1951 and 1957 respectively, and the facilities have become out-dated. These clinics provide services on a rather small scale, ranging from only one to three consulting rooms for each type of service. We need to both enhance and improve, the provision of primary health care services in this district particularly because it has a higher proportion of elderly people who generally have a higher demand for medical service.

9. The general out-patient (GOP) clinic in the new primary health care centre will reprovision the Sham Shui Po Public Dispensary, which is a GOP clinic with only one consulting room, as well as the GOP service in the Shek Kip Mei Health Centre, which currently haswith two consulting rooms. from the Shek Kip Mei Health CentreThe proposed provision of a total of 10 consultation rooms willto address localthe needs and to bring the service up to standard.

10. The family health service centre will reprovision the existing service at the Shek Kip Mei Health Centre, which currently haswith two consulting rooms, from the Shek Kip Mei Health Centre andwith improvement theof facilities.

11. The proposed skin clinic will be a dermatology centre in line with the modern trend in managing dermatological diseases. It will reprovision the old Skin Clinic with one consultation room in the Kowloon Hospital andwith upgradeing theof facilities. This will enable the management of dermatology cases on an out-patient basis as far as possible instead of having to admitting patients to hospitals for management.

12. The dental clinic will reprovision six dental chairs from the dental clinics at Canton Road, Tin Kwong Road and Wong Tai Sin. An additional 24 dental chairs will be provided in phases to reduce, by more than one month the long waiting time for dental treatment for civil servants, their dependents and pensioners.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

13. We estimate the capital cost of the project to be $1,784.2 million in MOD prices (see paragraph 14 below), made up as follows -

14. Subject to approval, we will phase expenditure as follows -

15. We have derived the MOD estimate on the basis of the Government’s forecasts of trend and labour construction prices for the period 1996 and 2001. In view of the tight construction programme, we will tender the project as a design-and-build contract. Under this form of contract, the successful contractor will be responsible for the detailed design and construction works but he will operate within firm and precise parameters set out by the Government, including a cash-limited budget. D Arch S has defined the scope and requirements of the project in sufficient detail to ensure that there will be no areas of design that the contractor could interpret in a way that is unacceptable to the Government. We intend to award the contract on a fixed-price lump-sum basis. This form of contract gives a high degree of certainty over final cost, with the contractor bearing the risk of increases due to inflation or variations in quantities.

16. By using a design-and-build contract, we can save a minimum period of six months on the pre-contract design and documentation stage. As far as costs are concerned, experience has shown that there will be little difference between using contractor-appointed consultants and using in-house staff. Moreover, D Arch S has fully committed his in-house staff to other projects.

17. We estimate the annual recurrent cost of this project to be $117.76 million. This includes utility charges, charges for cleaning and security services and maintenance cost for the office accommodation, costs for on-going support and maintenance of the backbone network and costs for staff and specialist supplies for the general clinic.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

18. In April 1996, we consulted the Sham Shui Po District Board. Members supported the project.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

19. In March 1995, D Arch S completed a Preliminary Environmental Review (PER) of this project and concluded that the potential for the project to create adverse impacts on the environment would not limited.. The Director of Environmental Protection vetted the PER and agreed that an Environmental Impact Assessment would not be necessary. D Arch S will equip the new building with central air conditioning which will enhance the internal noise environment within the building. As regards the health facilities, the Director of Health will arrange for the management, storage, transport and disposal of chemical and clinical wastes as recommended in the PER. As short term impacts during construction, D Arch S will control noise, dust and site run-off to within established standards and guidelines through the implementation of appropriate mitigation measures in the relevant contracts.

LAND ACQUISITION

20. The project does not require land acquisition. The site is now occupied by a temporary, private car park on a short term tenancy basis which can be terminated with three months’ prior notice.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

21. We upgraded 56KA to Category B in October 1995. We are finalising the sketch plans and tender documents using in-house staff. We plan to start work in January 1997 for completion in July 1999.

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