Results of tests into strength of bars underneath scandal-hit station’s platform untrustworthy, engineering experts tell inquiry
- Pair from University of Hong Kong raise doubts about tests on couplers at Hung Hom
- Response comes during heated debate on what is acceptable level of safety
Two engineering experts have told an investigation into Hong Kong’s costliest rail project claims a lower safety standard is still acceptable for the structural safety of the station at the centre of the scandal are wrong.
The pair said the results of the supporting test by the supplier of the steel bar connectors placed underneath the new platforms at Hung Hom station were untrustworthy.
Testifying on Tuesday before the commission of inquiry into the shoddy building work that has plagued the HK$97.1 billion (US$12.4 billion) Sha Tin-Central rail link, the comments by professor Francis Au Tat-kwong, and Dr Albert Yeung Tak-cheong, came during a heated debate over whether 60 per cent of the construction performance was an acceptable indicator of platform safety.
Leighton Contractors (Asia), the main contractor for the project, is embroiled in allegations that steel reinforcement bars were cut short to fake proper installation into couplers on a platform at the station, and that supporting diaphragm walls were changed without authorisation.
According to the couplers’ supplier, BOSA Technology, the correct installation was to have 10 threads fully engaged into the coupler, or a minimum embedded length of 40mm.