Your editorial of January 24, headlined 'Road test', has overlooked our reasons for the construction of Route 10 Northern Section.
Route 10 will be required for the expected increase in traffic from the boundary to urban areas and north Lantau (including the Disney theme park), regardless of the location of future container terminals. There is also the strategic need to provide a second link to Lantau and the airport. Without Route 10, Hong Kong will suffer an economic loss of $120 billion over a 20-year planning horizon, because of congestion and an increase in travelling times.
We have used the latest projections and most realistic scenarios regarding the fleet size of both private cars and goods vehicles, gross domestic product growth rate and population levels in assessing the need for Route 10. We have not just based our review on data in the Third Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS-3).
It is wrong to assume that because Route 3 Country Park Section (R3) has spare capacity at present we do not need to plan for Route 10. Another north-south link besides R3 was identified in the Second Comprehensive Transport Study Update in 1993. This information was given to potential R3 bidders. CTS-3 defined this link as Route 10. It would be irresponsible to wait until R3 is saturated before we start planning for Route 10 as development takes time.
According to our projections, there will be sufficient capacity in the existing road network to handle the traffic generated by Shenzhen Western Corridor and Deep Bay Link during the period from financial year 2005-2006 to 2010-2011. But during our consultation with the Tuen Mun and Yuen Long district councils and the Legislative Council Transport Panel on the western corridor and Deep Bay Link, we were asked to bring forward the completion of Route 10 Northern Section to relieve congestion on Tuen Mun Road. If funding for the detailed design for the northern section is approved by the Public Works Sub-committee tomorrow, we can maintain the flexibility of advancing the project if needed, although the exact timing can be determined when we actually seek funding for its construction.
A link between Chek Lap Kok and Tuen Mun was identified in CTS-3 as an additional link to Lantau (besides Route 10) which will hinge on the container and logistics development in northwest Lantau and the proposed fifth land crossing from Hong Kong to Zhuhai. The two projects are not mutually exclusive, but Route 10 is required earlier based on known planning parameters.
