Government responds to recent media reports on works at expanded Hung Hom Station under the Shatin to Central Link Project

     Regarding the media reports in the past two days about the works at the expanded Hung Hom Station under the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) project that have aroused public concern over the quality of works at the Hung Hom Station under the contract no. 1112, the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Highways Department (HyD) are very concerned about the incident and the HyD has taken immediate follow-up actions.

     After learning of the incident, the staff of the HyD and its Monitoring and Verification (M&V) Consultant carried out an on-site inspection at the Hung Hom Station on May 30, including inspecting the condition of the construction works and checking the inspection records of the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL). No serious crack or water leakage in the concrete structures was observed during the site inspection on that day.

     The Director of Highways (DHy), Mr Daniel Chung, met the senior officers of the MTRCL today (May 31) reiterating HyD's grave concern over the incident and pointing out that MTRCL, being the project manager under the Entrustment Agreement of the SCL project, has the responsibility to ensure the quality of works meets the relevant requirements. The DHy required the MTRCL to submit an incident report within a week. In addition, in order to ease the public concern, the DHy also required the MTRCL to arrange an independent third-party expert to carry out load test as soon as possible and to provide HyD with a test report in order to ensure that the structures can sustain the design loads.

     The works under the SCL project are still on-going. Upon the completion of works, the MTRCL shall submit the certification of completion of works and relevant documents to the Government. In addition, the HyD, its M&V Consultant and the relevant government departments will take part in the inspection for completion of works conducted by the MTRCL before the relevant works are handed over to the Government.