Government confirms HK$5b cost blowout for Zhuhai bridge
Minister says the increase - needed for an artificial island off the airport - is caused by rising wages and material and machine costs
The bridge across the Pearl River estuary to Zhuhai will cost Hong Kong's public coffers at least an additional HK$5 billion, in the latest budget blowout of a major infrastructure project.
The Transport and Housing Bureau announced yesterday it planned to seek approval for the extra funding, needed to complete an artificial island, originally budgeted to cost HK$30.4 billion, for the HK$83 billion Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.
The announcement came a day after an expert estimated costs could rise by at least HK$3.3 billion.
"Over the past years, wages of construction workers and costs of materials and machinery have gone up," transport minister Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said.
He said the administration would come up with a more precise figure before applying for additional funding from the Legislative Council.
Legco transport panel chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun wondered how the government had arrived at the sum, noting that its statement attributed the increase to tender price rises in contracts already awarded and yet to be awarded.
"Why are there still contracts to be awarded? And how does the government know the tender prices since the contracts have not been awarded yet?" he asked.
The island works, for which funding was approved in 2011, include reclamation and building border-crossing facilities and roads.
Panel deputy chairman Bill Tang Ka-piu shared Tien's concern but said the 16 per cent rise appeared consistent with wage increases in the construction industry over the past three years.
Chau Kwong-wing, a professor of construction at the University of Hong Kong who estimated that the surge in wages and material costs might raise the budget by HK$3.3 billion, said the government figure might be an overestimate to avoid future political embarrassment. "The estimate may cover some contingencies that will allow the government to cope with future changes. It would be more difficult if the government sought another huge sum again later," Chau said.
His estimate was based on the latest construction cost index compiled by the Civil Engineering and Development Department, which shows an increase in material and labour costs of about 10.9 per cent over the three-year period.
Panel member Ronny Tong Ka-wah of the Civic Party said it would be extremely difficult for the funding request to gain approval given radical pan-democrats' filibustering and the government's refusal to reorder agenda items.
Cheung sidestepped questions about whether there would be any further budget blowout, saying the government could only give its best estimate.
"All government infrastructure projects face the same problem," he said. "There are times increases are inevitable because of an increase in costs. Legco has approved funding requests like this in the past."
The bureau said the target opening date remained 2016.
Only vehicles holding cross-border permits will be allowed to use the bridge. The latest figures, from 2010, show such permits had been granted to 20,500 private cars, 950 coaches and 15,900 goods vehicles in Hong Kong.
