Highly competitive pricing and tight schedules can force construction contractors to compromise quality and safety, according to industry sources. Price cutting emerged after the 10 core airport projects were completed, as there were only two big projects available for contractors, they said. One of the projects is the Mass Transit Railway's Tseung Kwan O extension, and the other is Kowloon-Canton Railway's West Rail plan. 'Aside from these two projects, other projects are not so big, so bidding for most construction projects has been at very competitive prices and in some cases, the bids have been lower than actual construction costs,' the sources said. Some contractors wanted the jobs in order to sustain their businesses. 'Such actions could force contractors to compromise on safety and quality of the projects, if supervision is not strict enough,' the sources said. The recent scandals about public housing construction revealed what could happen if unrealistic pricing and tight time-tables were adopted, they said. The case of the two subsidised blocks in Sha Tin - which may have to be pulled down because of defective piling - may be exceptional, but the fear is that the problems exposed are representative of the culture and mindset of the construction industry. Housing Department officials have admitted that rigid systems, cumbersome practices and an outdated corporate culture are also to blame for shoddy construction work. The sources said many contractors had complained that the construction industry in Hong Kong was deteriorating further as development costs had come down to unrealistic levels. Kowloon-Canton Railway's senior director of capital projects, James Blake, said the KCRC had its own internal system of checking every piling that went into the ground. 'We have our resident staff and the contractor signing off each and every piling that goes into the ground to see they are in compliance with the specifications,' he said. Mr Blake said every time something like the recent public housing debacle occurred, the KCRC always revisited its own systems to see if further improvements could be made. 'So far, we are satisfied with our systems of checks and measures,' he said. CONSTRUCTION
