NEWS & EVENTS ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

Sustained enhancement against pandemic at Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin Tunnel works site

Photo by William Daigneault on Unsplash

With the COVID-19 pandemic situation remaining severe, the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) said that their project teams, including resident site supervision staff and contractors, have been striving hard to uphold hygienic conditions on site, through the implementation of various preventive measures.

Observing the guidelines of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), the teams have been strictly enforcing a range of measures, the spokesman for the CEDD said.  Among these are body temperature checking for all people entering the sites, the provision of surgical masks and other protective equipment, requirements for all personnel on site to wear masks, and the provision of changing, resting places and toilet facilities in multiple locations to suit the works fronts. Besides, the teams have stepped up the cleaning and disinfection of work environments, including daily cleaning and disinfection of changing rooms and toilets.

Once becoming aware on 2 January 2021 that a number of workers on the Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin Tunnel works site were preliminarily confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, the CEDD immediately liaised with the CHP and, following its advice, arranged for all site personnel to undertake COVID-19 testing, together with thorough cleaning and disinfection of the relevant locations.

Furthermore, in accordance with the advice of the CHP, the contractor has closed down the site since 4 January 2021, prohibiting unauthorised entry, and suspended all works from the same date onwards. The contractor will continue to maintain site cleanliness and hygiene during the suspension period. Given the potential hazards of construction sites, the CEDD urges the public not to trespass on the site area.

To further strengthen measures against the pandemic, the contractor will limit the number of people simultaneously using the changing facilities at any one time, similarly for the resting places. Moreover, each worker will be assigned a designated location for resting and changing, in order to reduce the risk of cross infection. The contractor will as far as possible set up more locations for meal breaks and resting, and arrange more staggered lunch hours, in order to further uphold social distancing. In addition, the project team will step up surveillance and patrol to ensure strict compliance with the measures.

Before resumption of works, the contractor will arrange for professional cleaners to further clean and disinfect the workplaces. On top of this, with a view to better protecting health and safety on site, the contractor will require all personnel entering the site to display the negative result of a COVID-19 nucleic acid test taken in addition to that mandatorily required by the CHP, before they will be allowed access.

The project team will continue to enforce the measures against COVID-19 strictly, and maintain close liaison with the CHP, to ensure the proper implementation of preventive measures against the pandemic. — Construction+ Online