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Gary Cheung

The opening of a new primary section at an elite Hong Kong school will be delayed for at least a year because of worries over a tunnel beneath the site believed to contain World War II explosives.

In a letter to Diocesan Boys' School alumni and boys' parents on Wednesday, chairman of the primary section sub-committee Sir Oswald Cheung said work on the site in Argyle Street, Mongkok, would be delayed and classes would now start only in September 2004. The 30-classroom division was planned to open to 1,100 pupils in September next year.

Work on the $129 million project began in April last year but was halted when the Civil Engineering Department told the school of the tunnel used by the Japanese army to store explosives in World War II.

The tunnel blew up in January 1946, killing four people, and was later sealed over.

In early June, a contractor commissioned by the school found the tunnel mouth between 10 and 14 metres below the surface -  without finding any explosives.

However, a source close to the school said the Civil Engineering Department was not satisfied with the safety of the tunnel.

The Buildings Department rejected a proposal from the school's architects in mid-June to resume work by hand-digging shafts, which poses less risk than mechanical piling.

The hand-digging of piling shafts has been banned since 1996, but sites can be exempted if there is no alternative.

Government records show an inter-departmental board concluded in May 1947 that tunnel clearing had been carried out satisfactorily.

The board said, however, that there may have been individual pieces of explosive material in the area, though probably not of sufficient strength to cause injury except if picked up.

School principal Terence Chang Cheuk-cheung said architects had submitted a second proposal to the Buildings Department two weeks ago.

'The [architects] argue in the proposal that use of hand-dug [shafts] is the only feasible method for the foundation works,' he said.

Tam Heng-kong, senior geotechnical officer at the Civil Engineering Department, said his department did not intend to block the project, but had a 'primary concern to safeguard public safety'.

Sources said the Buildings Deartment would decide on the latest proposal after talks with the Civil Engineering Department, the Labour Department and police explosives experts.



WWII ammunition store to delay school project by a year