MTR Sha Tin to Central link works scandal will not be resolved with a witch-hunt
The priority task is to find out if indeed reinforcement steel bars were cut short to falsely look as if they had been screwed into couplers, and how many, starting from 2015.
Without such evidence, pinning down who was responsible for the inspection doesn't help one bit on the way forward.
MTR Corp faces accusations of ‘unprofessional’ handling of shoddy work report
MTR works scandals have hit public trust in the safety of Hong Kong rail system
It seems that nothing short of digging up the concrete, to see just how many such couplings had the reinforcement bars cut short, will allay fears. But then what?
It can be safely assumed that a few couplings could not be done – either because the reinforcement bar was not aligned with the coupler, or the screw threads in either the coupler or on the bar had been fouled up and no replacement was available soon enough.
But all is not lost. Perhaps with a small enough number of couplings not having been done, the level of safety is still within acceptable limits.
If the inspectors will now vouch for the sample checks having been done and that no more than an acceptably small number of couplings were found not done, the total digging up of the concrete can be avoided, to declare the structure safe.
Peter Lok, Heng Fa Chuen
