Category: development
Another bridge problem: 7 piles replaced
Yet another problem has emerged on the troubled Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project, with the Highways Department confirming seven piles have been replaced.
The Apple Daily reported Sunday that a contractor had replaced seven large-diameter piles, each tens of meters long, at its own cost.
The name of the contractor, the reasons for the replacement work and the exact location were not clear, although one of the replaced piles is for the artificial island that will host the boundary crossing facility next to Chek Lap Kok. The 3m diameter pile had been buried to a depth of 60 or 70 meters. Continue reading
Let’s build in Lantau country parks, say rural committees
Lantau rural committee leaders have complained the government’s development plans don’t go far enough, with three calling for development in country parks.
Speaking at last week’s Islands District Council meeting, South Lantao Rural Committee representative Cheung Fu said that with several hundred thousand people on the public housing waiting list, new homes should be built on “low ecological value country park land.”
Fan Chi-ping, the Tung Chung Rural Committee representative, said the government should care more about the “feelings of rural people,” Local Press reported. Despite Hong Kong’s rank as the world’s most unaffordable housing market, Fan said there were too many “conservation sites,” which was forcing down the market value of land. Continue reading
Expert casts doubt on case for new hub off Lantau coast
A real estate expert has called into question the economic and environmental feasibility off the government’s East Lantau Metropolis plan.
Kau Yi Chau: the intended hub of the hub
The government has pitched the scheme for a commercial and residential hub of up to 700,000 people on an artificial island off Lantau’s east coast as a means of providing housing and economic activity.
But Leo Cheung, head of business valuation at property services company Icon City, said in a letter to Hong Kong Economic Journal it was difficult to see any “geographic operational synergies” for the hub in any sector other from logistics.
The government’s economic projections “belong to the unknown,” he says. Continue reading
So the bridge isn’t going to help Lantau tourism
It seems even the boosters of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge don’t think it will help the local tourism industry.
The SCMP has run two slightly panicked pieces on the pending opening of Shanghai Disneyland and just how badly that might hurt our own temple to the Mouse.
A long feature on Saturday asked if the two cities can “share the spoils?” Yet in the hefty list of compelling features at the local Disney site – we’re talking Iron Man Experience and Fairy Tale Forest here – no one has thought to mention the bridge.
Oh, that was the start of the public consultation
Yesterday’s opening of the Mui Wo playground was in fact the launch of the government’s ‘public engagement’ programme.
The LanDAC website lists 15 ‘events’ over the next three months that comprise the public consultation over the future of Lantau. Of those events, 12 are information displays. Only three public forums are planned in which the public can express their views.
Engaged public at Mui Wo playground yesterday
Protesters hit the streets in Mui Wo
Protestors in Mui Wo today came face to face with the government’s point man on Lantau development for the first time since the release of the controversial LanDAC report.
About 50 people marched through the streets of Mui Wo to confront Development Secretary Paul Chan as he opened the new children’s playground next to the wet market.
“Save Lantau”
The demonstrators called on the government to withdraw the LanDAC report and to keep the ban on outside vehicles from entering South Lantau. Continue reading
Deaths, injuries have delayed Macau bridge by more than a year
Industrial accidents on the Macau bridge project have killed six workers and delayed the project by more than a year, according to local news site HK01.
The Highways Dept has attributed delays to labour shortages and the uncertain supply of materials, but the rising toll of injury could be the biggest factor of all.
Source: Wikipedia
According to HK01, the project has been shut down as a result of injuries and safety issues for 439 days. As well as the six deaths, 129 workers have been injured since construction began in 2011. Continue reading
Enviro Sec shows shallow knowledge of Lantau schemes
Environment Secretary Wong Kam Sing seems to be unaware of the detail of the government’s Lantau development plans.
He told an RTHK interviewer last week that he believed the plans for Lantau South were “primarily” about ecotourism, with “conservation at the core.”
“The environmental impact should be very small,” he added.
Wong did not appear to know that the LanDAC report, issued on January 8, stipulates 14 tourist hot spots around Lantau, including ten in Lantau South (Mui Wo, Tai O, Sunset Peak, Pui O, Cheung Sha, Shui Hau, Tai O Valley, Sokos, Yi O, Fan Lau). Continue reading
Development plans will ‘destroy’ Lantau, green groups warn
A group of environmental and social justice organizations say the sweeping development plans for Lantau violate the vision of earlier governments and will destroy the island’s character.
In a letter to be sent to Chief Executive CY Leung and other officials, they say the proposals in the LanDAC report “will destroy the rural and culture character, the local economy, the natural landscape and the habitats of Lantau.”
The say the advisory committee’s report ignores the existing 2007 Lantau Concept Plan, which stipulates that large-scale tourism and infrastructure projects should be avoided. Continue reading
The aim of Lantau development is… development
Improving the “balance” between development and conservation has been a government priority in Lantau planning, Development Secretary Paul Chan told an interviewer this week.
In Mui Wo’s future: inflatable water toys
The LanDAC report reveals just how well that balance has been struck. The report, issued ten days ago, uses the word ‘develop’ 126 times. ‘Conservation’ appears just 20 times.
It appears that the purpose of Lantau development is development. The language is telling; we could have had a Committee for Lantau’s Future, the Lantau Sustainable Development Committee or even the Let’s Make Lantau Fabulous Committee. Continue reading
Lantau Confidential 