Q Should roads take precedence over pedestrian access to the harbour?
Your article 'New roads will choke the harbour' pointed out that there was public concern that the road system proposed for the reclaimed land along Victoria Harbour would choke the shore and further hinder public access to the waterfront.
We would like to point out that in formulating the land use proposals for the Central and Wan Chai Reclamation, due regard has been given to the Town Planning Board's vision statement for Victoria Harbour - 'to create a harbour for the people and a harbour of life'. The aim is to restructure the existing inaccessible harbour front into a new world-class harbour front district.
A key consideration is how to enhance connectivity between the urban area and the harbour front so as to bring people to the harbour and the harbour to the people. The graphic with your article illustrates only part of the story - the planned road network. It did not show how this network will be complemented by a comprehensive pedestrian network. A series of pedestrian corridors have been planned to provide easy access to the new waterfront through new development sites and across primary roads. Three major corridors - the Statue Square corridor, the Civic corridor and the Arts and Entertainment corridor - will provide direct and convenient pedestrian movement to the new harbour front in Central and will form excellent viewing corridors.
The Statue Square corridor will start from Statue Square via a low-rise pedestrian landscape deck to the new Star Ferry piers. The Civic Corridor will go from Admiralty Centre to the new harbour front via a 70-metre-wide open space deck. The Arts and Entertainment corridor will also provide convenient pedestrian access from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts to the new waterfront promenade.
In addition to these connections, two elevated walkways are proposed to connect the City Hall complex and a new government site to the new Central harbour front. Apart from the north-south pedestrian corridors, the new harbour front promenade will provide the much-needed continuous east-west pedestrian connection along the harbour front from the Central piers to the Convention and Exhibition Centre. The easily accessible harbour front promenade will allow people to come close to the harbour front to enjoy Victoria Harbour.
A similar network to enhance public accessibility to the harbour front has also been proposed in the draft Wan Chai North outline zoning plan. While this plan is now under a comprehensive review, the government will ensure that there will be adequate, attractive and convenient pedestrian links to bring people to our harbour front.