Top bids for bridge job

SEVEN groups of contractors and design consultants are to submit tenders today for a $3.5 billion contract to design and build the Ting Kau bridge, a key part of the Route 3 highway linking Tsing Yi and the New Territories.

Some of the world's top firms are competing for the job, which is the largest design and building project ever planned by the Highways Department.

They include Gammon and Costain, which are helping to build the Tsing Ma bridge, Leighton Contractors (Asia) and Dragages, which are also working on several airport core programme contracts.

Nine Hong Kong-based firms of British consulting engineers are also involved, including Ove Arup, Maunsell Consultants (Asia), Sir William Halcrow, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, and Binnie and Partners.

The contract will be awarded at the end of the year and work completed in June 1997.

The bridge will provide a three-lane dual carriageway across the Rambler Channel bridge between the Lantau Fixed Crossing and the Country Park section of Route 3.