Land subsidence at Man Kam To border crossing may take months to repair, Hong Kong leader John Lee says
- Chief Executive John Lee says government is ‘very concerned’ about the incident, which led to partial closure of crossing between city and mainland
- Lee vows to maintain close contact with mainland Chinese authorities and inform the public of any updates
Rare land subsidence that led to the partial closure of the Man Kam To border crossing may take months to repair, Hong Kong’s leader has said, vowing to maintain close contact with mainland Chinese authorities.
“The relevant mainland authorities have been handling the situation … I hope that the repairs can be done as soon as possible, but the preliminary information shows that they require one to a few months.”
He said the government would maintain close communication with the mainland, and inform the public of any updates.
It added that the service resumption date would be announced once repairs were completed.
Truck drivers face delays after Hong Kong, mainland Chinese crossing partly closed
Photos showed road signs and the surface in front of three booths had sunk, breaking the roofs of two, while a video revealed water leakage at a vehicle checkpoint.
Stanley Tandon Lal Chaing, chairman of the Lok Ma Chau-Hong Kong Freight Association, said the northbound passage of the crossing was closed, but the southbound one remained open.
He said he believed the incident would not have much impact on the city’s fresh food supply.
“Man Kam To border crossing is not our major control point,” he told a radio show on Tuesday. “It only accounts for 20 per cent of all the cross-border logistics in Hong Kong.”
He added that he expected repairs to take at least six weeks.
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Chaing said northbound trucks now had to travel through Heung Yuen Wai control point instead, which could lead to more traffic than usual.
“Heung Yuen Wai control point has always been the smallest crossing so queues will form even when there is not a lot of traffic,” he said.
“On Monday, I did not see a lot of trucks. I will continue to observe the traffic in the coming few days as there will be more trucks on Thursday and Friday.”
He suggested that authorities deploy more labour and set up additional checkpoints to clear the queues more efficiently.
Raymond Chan Kin-sek, former head of the Geotechnical Engineering Office under the government’s Civil Engineering and Development Department, said more information was needed to determine what caused the subsidence. He suspected that it was triggered by burst pipes.
“I saw that some of the lanes had been uplifted. This only happens with high-pressure water which is strong enough to lift the ground,” he told the same radio programme.
“High-pressure water can be found in water pipes. This phenomenon is similar to what can be seen in water pipe bursts in Hong Kong in the past.”
He said if the damage was related to burst pipes, the fix would be simple and quick, but if it was caused by natural water, the work could be more complex.
He added that the time required for repairs would depend on the cause of the incident, the size of the affected area and the availability of labour and resources.
