Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1562948/staff-shortage-hits-mtrs-project-bore-through-mountain-sha-tin
Hong Kong

Staff shortage hits MTR's project to bore through mountain for Sha Tin-Central link

Drilling through mountain provides MTR with its latest challenge, as tunnel work turns off staff and ground conditions prove uncertain

High-tech gear such as this tunnel boring machine make large-scale construction projects possible in the heart of the city. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Boring through the mountain below Lion Rock is shaping up as the next challenge for the MTR in the construction of the delayed Sha Tin-Central link, with a labour shortage and uncertainty about ground conditions.

General manager for the line Dr Philco Wong said yesterday the overall project was already 1,000 short of its required 4,200 workers and would need 6,000 when work reached its peak next year. He said blasting began about 10 days ago at Hin Keng, Sha Tin, for the 3.5km tunnel to Diamond Hill. About 40 boreholes had been drilled earlier to check ground conditions but uncertainties remained.

"No one has done any construction through the mountain since the Lion Rock Tunnel opened decades ago, so there could be many uncertainties in the process," he said.

"If you went hiking on the mountain, you would see there's a lot of erosion. We don't know if that's also the case in its middle."

The line is estimated to be 11 months behind schedule because of the excavation of ancient relics at the To Kwa Wan station site.

The first phase, from Tai Wai to Hung Hom, is scheduled for completion by 2018.

The second phase, from Hung Hom to Admiralty, is scheduled to open in 2020.

But Wong said the impact of the excavation on the completion date of the first phase would not be known until the government made a decision on whether to preserve the relics on site.

On the labour shortage, he said it was especially difficult to hire tunnel workers, as working conditions were worse than in other areas.

"Even though they are better paid, many prefer to work elsewhere," he said.

The government earlier agreed to speed approval of applications to hire foreign workers after the MTR said some contractors had waited 18 months before their applications were approved. The railway said it hoped that could help improve the situation as 4,000 to 5,000 of 17,000 vacancies were unfilled on the five railway projects currently under construction.

Wong said he expected that a tunnel-boring machine could be placed in the shaft at To Kwa Wan station late next year.

Construction of the shaft is going ahead after measures to protect the relics, including a well and other structures, were put in place. Wong said the MTR was studying plans to amend the design of the station in case the relics were to be preserved in situ.

He hoped the government could come up with a preservation plan soon after excavation was completed in September.

Protective pilings and more than 5,000 sandbags have been placed around the relics, some thought to date back as far as the 10th century, to protect them from vibrations caused by the construction work.

Archaeologists who began excavating relics in and around the station site in November 2012 have unearthed items from as far back as the early Song dynasty to as recent as the 20th century.