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The Water Supplies Department has awarded two contracts with a total value of $108 million for the replacement and rehabilitation of 40 kilometres of aged water mains in San Tin and Pak Shek Au and Kwai Tsing areas.
These were the first two contracts awarded under stage 2 of the territory-wide water mains replacement and rehabilitation programme.
Assistant Director of Water Supplies, Mr Ng Chi-ho, said today (January 30) after the contract signing ceremony for works in San Tin and Pak Shek Au that the comprehensive water mains improvement programme would progressively reduce incidents of burst water mains and leakage causing inconvenience to the public.
The $61 million contract comprises the replacement and rehabilitation of about 27km of aged water mains with diameter ranging from 20 mm to 250 mm in San Tin and Pak Shek Au.
Another $47 million contract was awarded a few days ago , covering the replacement and rehabilitation of about 13km of aged water mains with diameter ranging from 25 mm to 450 mm, in Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi areas.
In view of the heavy traffic conditions within the Kwai Tsing District, nearly 40% of the construction works would adopt the no-dig construction method to minimise interruption to traffic, Mr Ng said.
In the vicinity of the container terminal as well as critical road junctions, construction works would be carried out in off-peak hours, Sundays, public holidays and even at night to further avoid interruption to the traffic within Kwai Tsing District, he said.
Works under both contracts will start tomorrow (January 31) and are scheduled for completion in 2011.
Water Supplies Department is carrying out a comprehensive 15-year water mains improvement scheme to replace and rehabilitate some 3,000 kilometres of aged water mains throughout the territory.
It is expected that the stage 2 works will be completed in 2011, while the works for the entire 15-year comprehensive scheme will be completed before 2015.
Ends/Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:24
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