CONTRACTORS for the construction of the Western Harbour Crossing have appointed John Mundy as project manager of the $6.5 billion project to build Hong Kong's newest cross-harbour road tunnel. Nishimatsu's John Porter has been appointed project director, and Kumagai Gumi's Kazutoshi Torakai has been appointed technical director. Mr Mundy previously managed construction works at Container Terminal 8, the Tait's Cairn Tunnel, the Plover Cove reservoir, and the Piccadilly Line on the London underground. The contractor group, known as the Nishimatsu Kumagai Gumi Joint Venture, has already hired all the required senior staff for a joint venture team that is expected to grow to 80 people. The Nishimatsu Kumagai Gumi Joint Venture is contracted to the Western Harbour Tunnel Co which, in turn, is the franchisee for the dual three-lane road tunnel - the only build, operate and transfer (BOT) project in the Airport Core Programme (ACP). The Nishimatsu Kumagai Gumi Joint Venture began the 47-month construction programme on August 2. Mr Mundy said one of the first construction priorities would be the ventilation building on the Sai Ying Pun side of the project, where the first of the 40,000 tonne concrete units would be docked. The Western Harbour Crossing will be formed from 12 concrete units which will be made at a casting basin in Shek O. ''We start casting the first batch in April, 1994, and that work will take about six months, with the first units ready around October or November,'' Mr Mundy said. The design team, consisting of a joint venture of three consultants led by Maunsell's Richard Garrett, includes Parsons Brinckerhoff for the ventilation, and Acer Consultants for the immersed tube portion of the project. ''For this project, we have brought together experienced companies. Kumagai Gumi, which built the Eastern Harbour Crossing, which was a BOT project, and in Nishimatsu's case, our experience on BOTs is from the Tate's Cairn tunnels, where John Mundy has experience. ''Kumagai Gumi is strong on immersed tubes. Gammon, which will be a roadworks sub-contractor to Nishimatsu on the Western Harbour Crossing, did the elevated roadworks at Tait's Cairn, and Nishimatsu has Hong Kong experience as a deep excavation and tunnelling contractor,'' Mr Porter said. The Nishimatsu Kumagai Gumi Joint Venture will call for international tenders for the crossing's mechanical and electrical work at the appropriate time, according to Mr Porter. ''We will prepare a performance specification for electrical and mechanical tenderers, and then go out on an international basis, for a contractor or contractors whose responsibility it will be to take the design and work it up to a detailed stage which will be approved and then go to manufacturing, installation, testing and commissioning,'' he said. The crossing's electrical and mechanical responsibility will include traffic control and surveillance outside the project limit, right to Belcheer Bay. A former member of the both the Eastern Harbour Crossing team and the Tait's Cairn team, K.C. Tsui has been appointed Joint Venture construction manager for the mechanical and electrical works. Sandy Hone has been appointed as the Nishimatsu Kumagai Gumi Joint Venture's deputy project manager and construction manager for the crossing's civil works. Mr Hone previously worked with Kumagai Gumi for the recently completed Sydney cross-harbour tunnel. The Nishimatsu Kumagai Gumi Joint Venture has also appointed a Danish specialist in immersed tube construction, Knud Poulsen, as engineering manager. Alex Peling has been appointed as its commercial manager. He is a long-term resident in Hong Kong, with experience on many major projects. Consulting engineers Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick will act as independent checking engineers and site engineers for the crossing, looking after the interest of the tunnel company and the Government. In the Government's Highways Department Western Harbour Link Office, the team includes engineers Robert Lloyd, Eric Granville and Don Ramanaynke. ''We believe the Government's approach has been very good, because they have put people into their team who have experience in Tait's Cairn and the Eastern Harbour Crossing,'' Mr Porter said.