For discussion PWSC(95-96)70
on 10 January 1996

ITEM FOR PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE
OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 707 - NEW TOWNS AND URBAN AREA DEVELOPMENT
New Territories West Development
(Civil Engineering - Land development)
423CL - Tuen Mun New Town engineering development, formation, roads and drains in area 52 (remainder), and footbridge across Road D9

Members are invited to recommend to Finance Committee -

1. the upgrading of part of 423CL, entitled “Formation of public housing site and construction of access road in area 52, Tuen Mun”, to Category A at an estimated cost of $107 million in money-of-the-day prices; and
2. the retention of the remainder of 423CL in Category B.

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PROBLEM
PROPOSAL
PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE
JUSTIFICATION
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS
LAND ACQUISITION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
423CL - Tuen Mun New Town engineering development, formation, roads and drains in area 52 (remainder), and footbridge across Road D9

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PROBLEM

There is insufficient formed land to meet the public housing development programme for Tuen Mun New Town.

PROPOSAL

2. The Director of Territory Development, with the support of the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands and the Secretary for Housing, proposes to upgrade part of 423CL to Category A at an estimated cost of $107 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices for the formation of a public housing site and the construction of an access road in area 52, Tuen Mun.

PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

3. The full scope of 423CL comprises -

1. site formation of ten hectares of land;
2. construction of local distributor roads with associated drainage in area 52. These roads include Roads L52C, L52D, L52G, and part of L52A; and
3. construction of a pedestrian footbridge across Road D9.

4. That part of 423CL we now propose to upgrade to Category A comprises -

1. site formation of about six hectares of land in area 52, Tuen Mun;
2. construction of access road L52D, with associated drains and sewers; and
3. construction of a 280 metre long single cell of size 2 800 millimetres by 2 800 millimetres box-culvert.

JUSTIFICATION

5. The Director of Housing (D of H) proposes to provide a total of 5 000 new flats for public rental and Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) by the year 2000 in Tuen Mun New Town. This will comprise 2 800 rental units and 2 200 HOS units with a population of about 16 000.

6. To meet the land requirement, we have to form about six hectares of land in Tuen Mun area 52 to accommodate about 11 blocks of flats and a commercial centre. D of H estimates that once the land is available, he will require about 3 years to complete construction of the flats. If we are to meet the housing target completion date of the year 2000, we need to begin work on site formation and construction of the access road immediately.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

7. We estimate the capital cost of the project to be $107 million in MOD prices (see paragraph 8 below), made up as follows -

A breakdown by man months of the estimate for consultants’ fees for the construction stage is at the Enclosure.

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

9. We derive the MOD estimate on the basis of the Government’s forecasts of trend labour and construction prices over the period between 1996 and 1999. We will tender the works under a fixed price remeasurement contract because the project involves earthworks and retaining walls. The precise extent of the latter is likely to be subject to variation during construction depending on the actual ground conditions encountered. As the contract period is less than 21 months, the contract will not provide for adjustments to the tender price due to inflation.

10. We estimate the annually recurrent expenditure to be $542,000, of which $15,000 (in respect of the sewerage works) under the project will be a charge to the Sewage Services Trading Fund. In accordance with a resolution passed by the Legislative Council on 26 July 1995 on appropriation of assets to the Trading Fund, the sewerage works under the project will, upon completion, become assets in the Fund valued at cost.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

11. We consulted the Environmental Improvement and District Development Committee of the Tuen Mun District Board on the proposed works on 1 September 1994. Members of the Committee had no objection to the proposal.

12. We gazetted the layout of the access road L52D under the Roads (Works, Use and Compensation) Ordinance on 24 March 1995 and received no objection.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

13. The Director of Environmental Protection completed an Environmental Review for the project in March 1995. The Environmental Review concluded that the proposed works will not give rise to long term environmental impacts. For short term impacts, we will implement pollution control clauses in the contract to control dust, noise and site run-off nuisances during construction.

LAND ACQUISITION

14. We will resume about 0.14 hectares of building land and 5.2 hectares of agricultural land. The clearance will affect 104 families, involving 303 people. D of H will provide housing for the affected households in line with existing policies and procedures. We will charge the cost of land acquisition and clearance estimated at $306 million to Head 701 - Land Acquisition.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

15. We included 423CL in Category B in July 1994 for the formation and servicing of land at area 52, Tuen Mun.

16. We engaged consultants to undertake the investigations and design for the proposed works. The consultants have completed the detailed design and contract drawings. We charged the cost of $3.23 million to the block allocation Subhead 7008CX “Consultants’ fees and charges and major in-house investigations for new towns and urban area development projects”.

17. We have scheduled the proposed works to start in May 1996 for completion in November 1997. We will complete the site formation for handing over of the site to D of H in July 1997.

18. We plan to implement the remainder of 423CL in further stages starting from August 1996 for completion by December 2000.

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Enclosure to PWSC(95-96)70

423CL - Tuen Mun New Town engineering development, formation, roads and drains in area 52 (remainder), and footbridge across Road D9

Breakdown of the estimate for consultants’ fees for construction stage

Notes

The average estimated cost per professional and technical man month is about equivalent to a Senior Engineer on MPS point 47 and a Technical Officer on MPS point 20 respectively.

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