‘I was just lazy’ admits man accused of faking concrete test reports on Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge
Former site laboratory technician admitted using false instruments to produce test reports for multibillion-dollar infrastructure project
One of 19 laboratory employees embroiled in a scandal involving faked test reports for a mega bridge project in Hong Kong has admitted he was just lazy.
Former laboratory technician, Wong Kwok-yiu, pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of using false instruments to produce reports on concrete cubes intended for the multibillion-dollar Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, between 2012 and 2015.
His lawyer told Tuen Mun Court the man, 61, had cheated merely out of laziness and fear he would be reprimanded for his mistakes. There was no bribery involved, he assured the court, adding that the concrete cubes in question had met the required standard.
But acting principal magistrate Ivy Chui Yee-mei said: “If the cubes had been of substandard quality … it would have affected the bridge’s structural safety.”
The 55km crossing, which is a combination of bridges and a tunnel, has been under construction since 2011 and will link three major cities in the Pearl River Delta – Zhuhai in mainland China and the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
In late 2012, Hong Kong’s Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) set up a laboratory to conduct various compliance tests on concrete cubes, soil, rock and steel bars for the project, with the work undertaken by the Highways Department.