For discussion PWSC(96-97)51
on 10 July 1996

ITEM FOR PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE
OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 703 - BUILDINGS
Education - Tertiary/other
84ET - Central Kowloon child assessment centre and skills centre

Members are invited to recommend to Finance Committee the upgrading of 84ET to Category A at an estimated cost of $99 million in money-of-the-day prices for the construction of a child assessment centre and a skills centre at Argyle Street, Kowloon.

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PROBLEM
PROPOSAL
PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

Child assessment centre
Skills centre

JUSTIFICATION

Child Assessment Centre
Skills Centre

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS
LAND ACQUISITION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
84ET - Central Kowloon Child Assessment Centre and Skills Centre -- Details of Consultant’s Fees

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PROBLEM

There is a shortfall of vocational training places for people with a disability and a need to improve child assessment services.

PROPOSAL

2. The Director of Architectural Services (D Arch S), with the support of the Secretary for Health and Welfare, proposes to upgrade 84ET to Category A at an estimated cost of $99 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices for the construction of a child assessment centre and a skills centre at Argyle Street, Kowloon.

PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

3. The scope of the project comprises the construction of a 3-storey building for a child assessment centre and a skills centre. It will provide the following facilities -

Child assessment centre

1. three assessment rooms;
2. an audiometry assessment room;
3. a treatment room;
4. a group therapy room;
5. an evoked potentials recording room;
6. a visual assessment room;
7. physiotherapy assessment and treatment rooms;
8. occupational therapy assessment and treatment rooms;
9. a toys library;
10. a conference/seminar room; and
11. offices and ancillary facilities.

Skills centre

1. seven workshops;
2. six special rooms;
3. two classrooms;
4. offices and administration area;
5. staff/student canteen; and
6. gymnasium/assembly hall and ancillary facilities.

JUSTIFICATION

Child Assessment Centre

4. It is important to identify a child's developmental anomalies as early as possible. Currently, there are four child assessment centres operated by the Department of Health providing such services. A fifth will come into operation later this year. The proposed project will be the sixth centre of its kind. The need for child assessment services has been continually increasing. The case load has increased from 3 000 in 1991, when the fourth centre came into operation, to about 5 000 in 1995. The White Paper on Rehabilitation published in June 1995 expressed grave concern over the long waiting time for a detailed assessment under the present child assessment services. We anticipate that the fifth centre will shorten the average completion time for assessment of a new case from the current nine months to about seven months and the proposed project will further shorten it to about five months. The proposed child assessment centre will provide comprehensive physical, psychological and social assessment services for children from birth to 11 years old with developmental abnormalities.

Skills Centre

5. One of the stated objectives in the 1995 White Paper on Rehabilitation is to ensure that people with a disability have an equal chance to participate in productive and gainful employment. It is important that adequate and appropriate vocational training is provided to achieve this objective. The proposed skills centre will provide facilities for vocational training programmes designed for people with a disability to meet the requirements of the prevailing job market. The centre will provide 156 vocational training places. This provision will be able to meet the projected shortfall of vocational training places by 1999-2000.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

6. We estimate the capital cost of the project to be $99 million in MOD prices (see paragraph 7 below), made up as follows -

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

8. We have derived the MOD estimate on the basis of the Government's forecasts of trend labour and construction prices for the period 1996 to 2000. We will tender the project under a fixed-price lump-sum contract because we can define the scope of the works in advance, leaving little room for uncertainty.

9. We estimate the annually recurrent expenditure for the project to be $22.8 million, made up as follows -

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

10. We presented this project to the Kowloon City District Board on 21 June 1996 and the Board raised no objection.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

11. In November 1994, D Arch S completed a Preliminary Environmental Review (PER) of the project and concluded that, given its nature, size and location, the operation of the project would have limited potential for adverse impacts on the environment. 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 improve the internal noise environment of the building.

12. For short term impacts during construction, D Arch S will control noise, dust and site run-off in compliance with established standards and guidelines through the implementation of appropriate mitigation measures in relevant contracts.

LAND ACQUISITION

13. The project does not require land acquisition.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

14. We included 84ET in Category B in April 1995.

15. The original scope of the project also includes the construction of a medical rehabilitation centre, to be located next to the proposed child assessment centre and skills centre. Since the medical rehabilitation centre is a project of the Hospital Authority, it is now being separately funded under Head 708 in the form of a medical subvention project. This separate item was approved by the Finance Committee on 28 June 1996.

16. We have completed site investigations and are finalizing the detailed design for the project. We will engage a quantity surveying consultant for pre-contract preparatory work at an estimated cost of $1.03 million. We will charge this cost to the block allocation Subhead 3100GX "Project feasibility studies, minor investigations and consultants' fees selected from items in Category D of the Public Works Programme". We plan to start construction works in March 1997 for completion in April 1998.

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(DD1013)

Enclosure to PWSC(96-97)51

84ET - Central Kowloon Child Assessment Centre and Skills Centre -- Details of Consultant’s Fees

Breakdown of estimates for consultant's fees

Notes

1. A multiplier factor of 3 is applied to the average MPS point to arrive at the full staff costs including the consultant's overheads and profit, as the staff will be employed in the consultant's offices. (At 1.4.1995, MPS pt. 40 = $51,440 p.m. and MPS pt. 16 = $17,270 p.m.).
2. The figures given above are based on estimates prepared by the Director of Architectural Services. We will only know the actual man months and actual fees when we have selected the consultant through the usual competitive lump sum fee bid system.

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