During the construction of foundation works for a public housing development project at North West Kowloon Reclamation Site 1 (East), the reading in a utility settlement monitoring checkpoint installed at the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL)’s underground water cooling mains at Tung Chau Street near the Tonkin Street junction had shown a minor irregularity.
The checkpoint showed a reading of 20.3 millimetres, which slightly exceeded the pre-set trigger level of 20 millimetres. In accordance with established procedures and as a precautionary measure, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) immediately suspended works on a temporarily basis on 29 June 2020 at the relevant public housing development project site as requested by the Independent Checking Unit (ICU) under the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing.
The additional monitoring checkpoint was installed by the HA to meet the MTRCL’s requirement in accordance with the established procedures for Railway Protection Areas. These procedures aim to facilitate the MTRCL’s monitoring of settlement data of nearby projects, thereby ensuring that the safety of railway operation and railway facilities would not be affected by the works concerned.
The ICU, the HA’s building team and the MTRCL have deployed staff to inspect the affected underground water cooling mains of the air-conditioning system and confirmed that they are in normal operation conditions. The settlement did not affect the structural safety of other adjacent facilities. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has reviewed the relevant report submitted by the MTRCL in relation to safe operation of the railway and confirmed that the condition of the railway fulfilled the operational safety requirements. The construction works concerned did not pose any danger and have not affected the safe operation of the railway and railway facilities.
The ICU, the EMSD and the MTRCL will continue to closely monitor the situation to ensure safe operation of the railway and the safety of railway facilities.
The ICU and the MTRCL will request the HA’s building team responsible for the development project to formulate mitigation measures and adopt suitable construction methods that would be able to avoid adverse impacts on the railway facilities before relevant construction works of the development project can resume. — Construction+ Online
