It took HK$600 million and four years to build the Tseung Kwan O Tunnel
- Costing HK$200 million more than the original estimate, the tunnel was opened in November 1990
- The dual-lane tunnel linked Kwun Tong with what was then the new town of Tseung Kwan O
“Junk Bay tunnel to cost $400m,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on March 5, 1982. The four-lane tunnel would link Kwun Tong to Junk Bay, a new town under development that was expected to house 300,000 people and would later be renamed Tseung Kwan O.
“A study being launched by the Government will assess future transport demand in Junk Bay new town in the event that the Mass Transit Railway is not extended from Kun Tong [sic],” reported the Poston January 21, 1984.
“In this study we will carefully check whether our transport link will be sufficient to cater for the needs of the 175,000 people who would live in the new town after the phase one development is completed in 1993, ie without the MTR,” Peter Hine, chief town planner of the Junk Bay New Town Development Office told the paper.
The story continued, “Mr Hine said that about half of the 175,000 population planned for the town would live in public rental housing, about 30 per cent in Home Ownership Scheme units and the balance in private housing.”
On May 5, the Post reported that “The proposed Junk Bay tunnel via Ma Yau Tong will become the fourth toll tunnel in the territory when it is completed by the end of the decade. The toll tunnel will be the main access to link urban Kun Tong and the Junk Bay new town, which will start to take in residents in the next few years.”