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Following is a question by the Hon Abraham Shek and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (March 1) :
Question:
It has been reported that the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor (the Corridor) is expected to open at the end of this year or early next year. The Government estimates that the Corridor will aggravate the traffic congestion on the already over-loaded Tuen Mun Road. Designed to relieve traffic congestion at the checkpoints in Lok Ma Chau, Sha Tau Kok and Man Kam To, the Corridor will also increase the traffic flow in northwest New Territories, including Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the reconstruction of and improvement to Tuen Mun Road will only be completed in 2010-11, how the Transport Department will relieve the traffic congestion in northwest New Territories, which will be aggravated by the opening of the Corridor; and
(b) whether the authorities will work with the operator of Route 3 to make special arrangements for diverting the traffic on Tuen Mun Road to Route 3, thereby reducing the traffic flow on Tuen Mun Road?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Hong Kong section of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor (the Corridor) was completed at the end of last year. Based on the progress of the works that have been carried out thus far, it is estimated that the Shenzhen section of the Corridor and the main works for the boundary-crossing facility at Shekou will be completed in the end of this year. Hong Kong and Shenzhen will continue to work closely together with the objective of opening the Corridor to traffic within the first half of next year.
In the Northwest New Territories Traffic and Infrastructure Review 2004 (the Review), we have examined in detail the traffic implications of the commissioning of the Corridor on the transport infrastructure in northwest New Territories. As we have explained to the Panel on Transport of the Legislative Council when reporting the results of the Review, the existing road networks in northwest New Territories together with road projects that have been planned for the region should be able to cope with the traffic demand, including the additional demand that the Corridor will bring about, up to 2016.
According to our assessment, there will be about 31,000 vehicle trips daily (vtd) using the Corridor when it is open. At that time, there will be a total of around 160,000 vtd using Tuen Mun Road and Route 3, which will be below the total designed capacity of 250,000 vtd of the two major trunk roads in northwest New Territories. We expect that by 2016, there will be about 60,000 vtd using the Corridor, and at that time around 188,000 vtd will be using Tuen Mun Road and Route 3. That level will still be below the total designed capacity of 250,000 vtd of the two trunk roads.
Nevertheless, in order to relieve the traffic pressure on the town centre section of Tuen Mun Road, we have drawn up several short and medium-term traffic improvement plans. Some of those plans have already been implemented, including lengthening of the bus bays along the town centre section of Tuen Mun Road to increase their capacity and reduce obstruction to traffic on the main road; and improving the lanes merging from Tuen Hi Road into the town centre section of Tuen Mun Road. As regards medium-term measures, we will widen the section of Tuen Mun Road near Tsing Tin Interchange from two lanes to three lanes for each direction. We expect the widening works to be completed by mid-2008. We have also commissioned a consultancy study to examine whether it is feasible to introduce further traffic improvement measures at the town centre section of Tuen Mun Road. We expect that the study will be completed by mid-2006.
For the long term, we have drawn up a plan to provide new strategic transport infrastructure to meet the growth in traffic demand in the northwestern part of the New Territories after 2016. Different possible highway packages have been examined in the Review. We have allocated resources for preparatory work for the possible highway packages such as site investigation work and further studies. These will enable us to provide the supporting transport infrastructure to meet the development needs in a more efficient and timely manner in future.
Apart from continuing to encourage the franchisee of Route 3 to offer more concessions to more vehicle types, we are actively exploring with the franchisee other possible measures to rationalise the utilisation of Route 3 and Tuen Mun Road.
Ends/Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:40
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