Contractor difficulties led to delays
We refer to Michael Ko’s letter “Roadworks delay needs explaining” (October 30) and his follow-up letter, “Department did not reply to query on delay” (November 30), raising his concern about the slow progress of the water mains laying works at Ching Hong Road and Tsing Yi Road.
The contract in question involves the rehabilitation and replacement of about 70km of water mains in the Tsing Yi, Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan areas, with a 45-month contract period. At the peak of construction, there were over 40 work fronts at the same time.
The section of works along Ching Hong Road and Tsing Yi Road involved the laying of 3.3km of new water mains, replacing aged water mains. This part of the works started in May 2012 and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.
The works are technically difficult, with heavy traffic constraints, a large volume of rock excavation and congested utilities.
Various measures to overcome these difficulties have been implemented to ensure early completion. For example, the construction method of some sections of the water mains has been changed from open-cut to trenchless method to deal with congested utilities, despite the higher cost.
However, the contractor has in recent months had resource problems, resulting in a significant decrease in the number of workers deployed to the works. Despite high-level meetings, repeated warnings and the imposition of sanctions such as marking adverse performance reports and suspending the contractor from tendering for works, the situation has not improved and works virtually came to a halt on many work fronts.