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A NEW expressway costing $7 billion will have to be built between Tsing Yi and Kowloon to relieve massive congestion forecast for the newly opened Kwai Chung viaduct.

 A Government report given to Sunday Money says the Kwai Chung viaduct will reach saturation within nine years.

 It only opened in the middle of February but the report indicates it will quickly reach capacity use.

 'Traffic forecasts indicate the Route 3 Kwai Chung viaduct will be severely overloaded by 30 per cent in 2006,' the document said.

 The forecast massive increase in viaduct traffic is due largely to expectations for use of Chek Lap Kok airport and an expected surge in the population of the north-west New Territories.

 The new highway, Route 9, will connect the Lantau Link approaches with the West Kowloon expressway at Cheung Sha Wan.

 It will form a strategic connection across the Rambler Channel, providing direct access between container terminal 9 (CT9) at Stonecutters Island and the main Kwai Chung port complex.

 Officials are hoping to commission Route 9 by 2004 to coincide with the opening of Route 16, an east-west highway connecting West Kowloon and Sha Tin.

 'Route 9 should preferably be completed together with Route 16 so as to complete the strategic link from the east New Territories to the container terminals and on to north Lantau,' the report said.

 Details of the scheme have recently been circulated by the Highways Department to 17 engineering firms who have been invited to tender for a detailed project feasibility study.

 Work on the investigation will start in August and take 12 months to complete.

 Detailed engineering is expected to begin soon after. No official estimate has been made public, but one experienced highway engineer said Route 9 would cost at least $7 billion to build.

 The scheme includes the 1.4 kilometre Nam Wan tunnel to be built in the southern part of Tsing Yi island and 4.8 kilometres of elevated highway which includes the Stonecutters bridge and Ngong Shuen Chau viaduct.

 The 2.5 kilometre bridge will span the Rambler Channel and connect container terminals 9 and 8. The Ngong Shuen Chau viaduct will run through the Kwai Chung container port to connect with the West Kowloon reclamation.

 The cost and complexity of the project depends on the long-delayed Container Terminal 9 going ahead.

 According to the latest Government programme, the first berth at CT9 is due to become available by 2000 just when construction of Route 9 is set to start. If this happens, it will give contractors direct land access to the site and make construction easier.

 But sources believe new figures due at the end of this year will show zero port growth and lead to further questions about the need for CT9.

 If CT9 is delayed as a result, contractors on the bridge could have to work in water, making construction more difficult and possibly increasing the cost.



Plan for $7b road to ease traffic as new link nears capacity