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| December 1999 Widening Tolo Highway 'Ultimate Solution' for Common Good By Lauren Lam and Veronica Ho RELATED ARTICLE: The government has launched a project to widen the section of Tolo Highway from Ma Liu Shui Interchange to Island House Interchange to meet the forecast increase in traffic demand. Under this project, which was planned in 1994 and began in March this year, that section of highway will be widened from the existing dual 3-lane to a dual 4-lane carriageway by the end of 2001. Said Mr. Luk Chen Sing, an engineer for the Highways Department: “This project aims at solving the problem of traffic congestion. “Upon completion, the road capacity will be increased, so that the expressway will be able to cope with the estimated traffic demand up to 2011.” According to statistics provided by the Highways Department, it is estimated that in 2001, the volume against capacity ratio of the highway will be 1.32 and 1.04 in the northbound and southbound traffic lanes, respectively. After widening the highway, the forecast ratio will be 1.0 and 0.78. The statistics provided by the Department show that the average daily traffic on the highway increases by 18 percent each year. Said Mr. Simon Tsui Wing Kin, senior engineer of Hong Kong Construction (Holdings) Limited: “Surely it can help ease the traffic flow, particularly in the bottlenecks.” A standard 3.3-metre wide hard shoulder in each direction will be constructed. “For example, crashed cars can be moved to the hard shoulder area at once so that the flow of traffic won’t be affected by any traffic accidents,” said Mr. Luk. The space for widening will largely be obtained through small-scale harbor reclamation beside Tolo Highway. The average width of the reclamation land is approximately 20 to 25 metres. However, Dr. Chen Luk Ki, campaigns coordinator for Friends of the Earth, said that the widening will be effective for only a short period of time. Said he: “According to some experts, if there are fewer roads, car utilization will be reduced, as people may find it undesirable to drive on congested roads. “However, as more and more roads are built, people will use their cars more often, as they find that the time cost of using their cars is reduced. “The government still has to control the number of cars in the long run.” On the other hand, Mr. Lo Sze Ping, campaigner for Greenpeace China, said that the potential environmental impacts brought about by the project are as crucial as the problems being solved. “As long as the government keeps on resorting to road construction to solve traffic problems, adverse effects on the environment will emerge sooner or later. “Road construction is not the right way to solve the problems,” said Mr. Lo. He said that only the construction of a mass transport system can benefit all strata of society, and resources could be saved as the government would need only to maintain one entire system. Mr. Lo also underscored some environmental problems caused by the project. Said he: “The mangrove vegetation around the area has been diminishing since the construction of Tolo Highway. This project may worsen the situation. “In addition, the number of fish ponds in Tai Po will decrease.” According to Mr. Poon Ming Hung, a Tai Po resident who goes jogging there four to five times a week, the air is polluted because of the project. “There is a lot of dust. Air pollution is aggravated when there is strong wind,” said Mr. Poon. To cope with the potential environmental problems, the departments concerned have stepped up related preventive measures. Mr. Terry Wong King For, senior planning engineer for Hong Kong Construction (Holdings) Limited said, “Noise barriers will be built to reduce the noise generated by the vehicles.” The Hong Kong Construction also uses other methods to keep noise levels under 75 decibels, which is the standard set by the Environmental Protection Department. By adopting low noise level machinery, using canvas as mobile noise barriers, and avoiding the operation of machines simultaneously, the noise can be kept to a minimum. To improve the site for recreation, the existing cycle track will be widened from 4.4 metres to 6 metres. In addition, a 5-metre landscape buffer zone will be constructed to separate the cycle track from the highway. Mr. Luk of the Highways Department explained that it could improve the air quality along the highway. “The government is in favour of environmental protection. The landscape buffer zone would lead to visual improvement along the highway.” Added Mr. Wong of Hong Kong Construction: “People cycling along the track will be able to breathe more fresh air than before.” However, in the meantime, the beginning section of the cycle track from the University station is temporarily being narrowed. “That part of land next to the cycle track belongs to the Chinese University. “We have to narrow the track temporarily in the process of the project if we want to maintain the existing land. “After the completion of the project, the track will be widened,” Mr. Wong said. According to him, the inconvenience caused by the project is only temporary. Besides, an additional footpath will be provided along the full length of the seaward side of the highway. “There is no footpath along the cycle track, so it may be a bit dangerous. “But after the construction of the footpath, people can walk along the track without potential danger posed by the moving bicycles.” According to Mr. Poon, a local resident, even though there are noise barriers to reduce the noise, their effects are limited. They do not stop the noise, but block the sea view. Mrs. Shek Wei Fong, a resident of Tai Po Kau, said that her family could no longer go to the pebble beach and the harbour in their spare time because of the project. Mr. Luk of the Highways Department said that they received complaints and objections at the beginning of the project. “So far we have received complaints and objections from the Chinese University, the Friends of the Earth, and also the World Wide Fund,” said he. “Friends of the Earth asked us to give it the numbers for traffic flow for evidence. “We have done the Environmental Impact Assessment and have got the environment permit, so they are convinced that there is really a need for widening the highway.” Said Mr. Luk: “The World Wide Fund is concerned that our project will disturb the habitat of the egrets near Yuen Chau Tsai in Tai Po.” “We therefore constructed some stones above the seawater level so that the egrets have space to take a rest.” He also added that they had planted a lot of bamboo to provide shelters for the egrets. “We’ve found that there are even more egrets in that area now,” said he. Additionally, Mr. Luk stated that there are 11 monitoring stations to monitor both the air and water quality. “For example, the experiments done in the Marine Science Laboratory (at the Chinese University adjacent to Tolo Harbor) are all dust sensitive. “We then monitor the dust level in the air so that it won’t exceed the standard level.” Added Mr. Tsui of Hong Kong Construction: “We also spray water onto the ground so as to reduce the amount of dust particles suspended in the air.” Concerning the stability of the reclaimed land, Mr. Luk said: “We will use pre-loading to shorten the time needed for the land to become stable, but some parts of land will become stable naturally after reclamation. Regarding the water quality, Mr. Luk said that the rain and typhoons sometimes pollute the water. Water quality may slightly below the standard level in such cases. “The water quality is mainly affected by the silt produced by reclamation,” said Mr. Luk. The marine ecosystems and the people fishing there may also be disturbed by the project. Mr. Chan Yiu-ming, a senior engineer in Highways Department, said, “Actually we do not encourage people fishing there, because it’s not a legally permitted area for fishing. It’s dangerous for people to take their own risks by fishing there.” Added he: “There are environmental evaluations a few times a week to ensure that the marine life is not affected.” Said Mr. Tsui: “We use silt screen to restrict the amount of suspended particles in sea mud to minimize the effect on the marine life.” An independent consultant, the Material Lab, has been employed to evaluate the marine life in Tolo Harbour and reports are sent to the Highways Department every 3 months. Though the related precautions have been taken, the project has aroused much criticism. As noted by Mr. Lo of the Greenpeace, transport system is a public affair and so they should have the right to express their opinions. “But it seems that the decision-making power is in the hands of the government officials rather than the public. “Only a small group of people are responsible for making decisions affecting the whole society,” said Mr. Lo. Though there is public consultation, according to Mr. Lo, the documents are not easily accessible by the general public. “In addition, the Environmental Impact Assessment Report only concentrates its assessment on technical fields like the impact on people’s lives. “It fails to take society and culture into the cost calculation. “Moreover, many reports are very lengthy. Most of them are written in English and contain lots of technical terms which people may find difficult to understand,” said Mr. Lo. Besides, Dr. Cheng of the Friends of the Earth said that the departments concerned did not include the effects on the people who were using the cycling path. Therefore, residents in the neighbourhood are not well informed about the whole matter. Mr. Siu Kwok Man, a Tai Po resident who rides bicycle there twice a day, said that although he knew that there was a consultation period, he could not express his opinion as he could not read the English documents. According to Mrs. Shek Wai Fong, she only knew the project when she noticed the noise of the machinery. “I hope that there could be more channels through which I could express my opinion,” said she. Said Mr. Poon Ming Hung: “I don’t think the consultation is enough as I can only got the information from the newspapers and the notices posted along the road.” Added Dr. Cheng of Friends of the Earth: “People have no idea about the effects of the project. “They should be well informed so that they can know the opinions of different sectors of society when considering the whole issue. “That’s why education through providing information to the public is important.” |
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