For discussion PWSC(96-97)21
on 26 June 1996

ITEM FOR PUBLIC WORKS SUBCOMMITTEE
OF FINANCE COMMITTEE

HEAD 703 - BUILDINGS
Education - Secondary
203ES - Secondary school in area 14, Tin Shui Wai
204ES - Secondary school in area 9, Tai Po
205ES - Secondary school in area 49A, Fanling

Members are invited to recommend to Finance Committee the upgrading of 203ES, 204ES and 205ES to Category A at an estimated total cost of $195.7 million in money-of-day prices for the construction of three secondary schools in the territory.

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PROBLEM
PROPOSAL
PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE
JUSTIFICATION
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS
LAND ACQUISITION
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A comparison of the standard cost of a secondary school project with the estimated costs of the proposed school projects

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PROBLEM

There will be a shortfall of 148 secondary school classes in the territory by 1998.

PROPOSAL

2. The Director of Architectural Services (D Arch S), with the support of the Secretary for Education and Manpower, proposes to upgrade the following projects to Category A at an estimated total cost of $195.7 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices -

PROJECT SCOPE AND NATURE

3. The three secondary schools will be of a standard design. Each school will comprise -

1. 26 classrooms;
2. 14 special rooms;
3. three remedial teaching rooms;
4. a guidance activity/interview room;
5. two interview rooms;
6. a staff common room;
7. a student activity centre; and
8. an assembly hall and ancillary facilities.

JUSTIFICATION

4. The Director of Education forecasts that there will be a shortfall of 148 secondary school classes in the territory by 1998. As a temporary measure to meet the shortfall, we are adopting floating classes in secondary schools. In accordance with the Government policy to phase out floating classes in Secondary One to Secondary Five, we propose to construct three secondary schools in the territory to reduce the shortfall. We are planning more schools to meet the remaining shortfall.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

5. We estimate the capital costs of the 203ES, 204ES and 205ES to be $66.8 million, $66.7 million and $62.2 million respectively in MOD prices (see paragraph 6 below), made up as follows -

A comparison of the standard cost of a secondary school with the project estimates of these three schools is at the Enclosure.

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

7. We have derived the MOD estimates on the basis of the Government's forecast of trend labour and construction prices for the period 1996 to 1999. We will tender the three projects under fixed-price lump-sum contracts because we can define the scope of works in advance, leaving little room for uncertainty.

8. We estimate the annually recurrent expenditure for each school to be $30.5 million. As the new schools will be aided schools, the individual sponsoring body will bear the costs of furniture and equipment, estimated at $5.0 million for each school.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

9. We consulted the Social Services and Publicity Committee of the Yuen Long District Board in March 1996 on 203ES, the Tai Po District Board in May 1996 on 204ES and the Culture, Recreation and Social Services Committee of the North District Board in May 1996 on 205ES. They all supported the projects.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

10. The consultants of D Arch S completed and the Director of Environmental Protection vetted the Preliminary Environmental Reviews (PERs) in July 1995 for 203ES and in March 1995 for 204ES and 205ES. The PER for 205ES indicated no adverse impacts from the adjacent roads. For 203ES and 204ES, the PERs concluded that the proposed schools would be subject to traffic noise impacts in excess of the standards stipulated in the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines. We will implement the following noise abatement measures and have included the costs of providing these in the project estimates -

11. For the three projects, we will control dust and site run-off nuisance during construction to conform to established guidelines/standards through the implementation of mitigation measures in relevant contracts.

LAND ACQUISITION

12. The three projects do not require land acquisition.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

13. We included the three projects in Category B in October 1995.

14. We have completed site investigations for the three projects. We are finalizing working drawings and tender documents using in-house staff. We plan to start the construction works for the three projects in January 1997 for completion in July 1998.

(HH383)

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Enclosure to PWSC(96-97)21

A comparison of the standard cost of a secondary school project with the estimated costs of the proposed school projects

* Assumptions for standard cost

1. No site formation work/geotechnical work is required as this is normally carried out under a separate engineering vote.
2. Piling cost is based on 130 nos. of steel H-piles of an average depth of 30 metres.
3. Cost for drainage and external works is for a standard school of 6 950 square metres built on a flat site. No diversion of existing utilities or noise mitigation measures are required.
4. No consultancy services are required.
5. Furniture and equipment cost is excluded as it is usually borne by the sponsoring body.

Notes

1. For 204ES, the piling cost is based on 125 nos. of steel H-piles of an average depth of 25 metres. The cost is higher as pre-boring is required for each pile to an average length of 10 metres due to in-situ highly decomposed tuff and moderately decomposed tuff. For 205ES, the piling cost is lower because it is based on 130 nos. of steel H-piles of an average depth of 20 metres.
2. For 203ES, the building cost is higher because the provision of double-glazed windows is required for noise mitigation purposes.
3. For 203ES and 204ES, the building services costs are higher because the provision of air-conditioning is required as a noise mitigation measure.
4. For 204ES and 205ES, the costs for overall drainage and external works have been adjusted according to the size of the school sites, which is 6 550 square metres and 7 380 square metres respectively.

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