REGARDING the recent letters about Clearwater Bay Road roadworks, it would appear that the work in hand is the replacement of rainwater drains and the concrete road surface. These are no doubt necessary works, but that alone would not take till July 1996 as the Highways Department blithely inform us.
What is adding to the delay is the removal of perfectly adequate pavements on both Old and New Clearwater Bay roads and their replacement with brick-sized loose paving stones, laid in herringbone pattern. Most of these pavements are very rarely walked on, as they lead to nowhere! In the past the pavements were largely used by goods vehicles parking overnight. While this is generally to be deplored, as they were not used by pedestrians the nuisance value was nil.
Now the area is barricaded off, as are blighted miles of seldom-used pavements all over the Sai Kung area. I fear the lorries will have to find another, probably more anti-social, place to park.
A lot of money has been spent, traffic disruption has been caused, and will continue for months, and an opportunity to create goods-vehicle parking has been lost. The result of all this is that a pavement, varying in width from 15cm to around 3.4m wide has been laid which is of no obvious benefit to anyone. There are many pavements in Hong Kong that seem to be constantly excavated, where pedestrians are numerous and where an exercise like this would seem to have some point.
To those of us stuck in slow-moving traffic every morning, the drainage work does not seem to have any connection with the pavement replacement. If I am wrong and the Highways Department can assure me that this is all part of some sensible masterplan, I would be delighted to hear from it via this newspaper.
EILEEN PECK Sai Kung
