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WORK to relieve the notoriously congested Tuen Mun highway is set to cost less than half the $1.3 billion government estimate, it was revealed yesterday.

  It is understood that two of the tenders were below $600 million while a third was marginally more expensive at $670 million.

  The remaining three bids received by the Central Tender Board are known to be between $770 million and $890 million.

  The Highways Department is hoping to award the contract in early May with completion set for the end of 1996.

  The staggering difference between the Government's figures and the actual tender prices caught many contractors by surprise. They were expecting prices to be under the Government's budget, ''but not by 60 per cent'', commented one source.

  The Government has previously been strongly criticised for inflating estimates and the latest figures are bound to lead to calls for a review of its estimating procedures.

     The Tuen Mun highway improvement scheme was one of the biggest in the Government's public works programme when the Governor announced that $1 billion would be allocated to help meet the cost of the project.

  The front-runner for the work is a joint venture between Britain's Balfour Beatty International Construction, part of the BICC cabling and engineering group, and Shui On, one of Hong Kong's leading contractors, which put in a tender of just over $500 million. Its closest rival is Gammon, which tendered about $580 million.

  A third consortium of New Zealand, British, Chinese and local companies put in a price of $670 million.

  The evaluation of tenders had just started so it is difficult to tell which group might win the job, a department source said, ''but we expect it to be one of these three''.

  Bid assessments were further complicated because the contractors were responsible for the design of the works and each of the six ventures had submitted its own alternatives.

  Work would entail the formation of a fourth traffic lane on four of the highway's steepest stretches. This would enable slow-moving traffic, including buses and trucks, to pull in and allow faster traffic to overtake more easily.

  More than eight kilometres of new road would be built, including a new 1.5 kilometre section of viaduct.

  A complex system of traffic management measures has already been drawn up by the Highways Department to keep the dual three-lane Tuen Mun highway fully open while construction takes place.



Highway set to cost half of government estimate