Public Consultation

[ HARBOUR-FRONT ENHANCEMENT | TRUNK ROAD DESIGN | SPECIAL TOPICS ]

  1. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ON HARBOUR-FRONT ENHANCEMENT

  2. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ON TRUNK ROAD DESIGN

    Whilst the emphasis of the HER was on the planning of the harbour-front with a view to protecting the Harbour and improving accessibility, utilisation and vibrancy of the harbour-front areas, a holistic approach had been taken in integrating harbourfront development with the essential transport infrastructure project, this being mainly the need to complete a long planned strategic road link along the north shore of Hong Kong Island, that is the Central-Wan Chai Bypass (the Trunk Road) . Any land that may be formed along the shoreline to facilitate the Trunk Road construction would then provide further opportunity for harbour-front improvement.

    When investigating Trunk Road schemes, any reasonable alignments that do not require or result in reclamation (i.e. "no-reclamation" alignments) need to be identified and pursued, in accordance with the Court of Final Appeal's judgment on the presumption against reclamation established in the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance (PHO). The Consultants have careful considered this matter and their findings, together with those on some other key issues, were reported to the HEC Sub-committee for consideration at the meeting held on 9 March 2006. In response to the request of the HEC Sub-committee, the Consultants subsequently prepared a comprehensive report presenting their findings on their preliminary assessment on possible Trunk Road alignments and its construction forms. After thorough assessment, the Consultants came to the view that there was no possible "no reclamation" alignment for building the Trunk Road and that the only feasible routing was one along the foreshore of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay.

    The Consultants' above view and several ideas, with the Trunk Road and harbour-front enhancement planned holistically, together with their pros and cons, were presented for the Sub-committee's for consideration at the meeting held on 20 April 2006. The HEC Sub-committee accepted the Consultants' findings that there was no possible "no-reclamation" alignment and the "foreshore" alignment was the most reasonable and practical alignment for the Trunk Road. With the feasible routing identified, two forms for constructing the Trunk Road, namely the tunnel option and the flyover option, were examined.

    1. 21 April 2006 – Town Planning Board
    2. 11 May 2006 – Works and Development Committee of Eastern DC
    3. 15 May 2006 – Traffic and Transport Committee of Southern DC
    4. 16 May 2006 – Wan Chai DC
    5. 20 May 2006 – Hong Kong Institute of Architects, Hong Kong Institute of Engineers, Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, Hong Kong Institute of Planners and Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (through a Joint Institute Seminar)
    6. 23 May 2006 – LegCo Panel on Planning, Lands and Works (PLW)
    7. 25 May 2006 – Central and Western DC
    8. 9 June 2006 – LegCo PLW Panel special meeting

    Taking into account of the views from the public, the following two conclusions were reached:

    • Having examined all feasible options for the development of the Trunk Road and given the constraints imposed by the Mass Transit Railway Tsuen Wan Line tunnel,
      the need to provide slip roads at Wan Chai and the need to connect to the existing Island Eastern Corridor, there is no feasible "no reclamation" alignment for constructing the Trunk Road.
    • In view of the least area of the Harbour affected under Variation 1 of the Tunnel Option amongst other variations/option with comparable traffic performance.
      Variation 1 of the Tunnel Option was adopted as the basis for the Concept Plan preparation work.

    In accordance with the Court of Final Appeal judgment, there should be "cogent and convincing materials" (CCM) before the decision-maker to satisfy him that there is an overriding public need for reclamation so as to rebut the presumption against reclamation under the PHO. A CCM report was proposed. In the CCM report, the overriding and present need for building the Trunk Road was justified; the conclusion that there is no feasible "no reclamation" option for building the Trunk Road was explained; the process of identifying the alignment that would best serve to protect and preserve the Harbour was described and the minimum extent of reclamation required for building the Trunk Road was determined.

    The CCM Report is available at
    http://www.devb.gov.hk/reclamation/en/basic/review_report/
    cogent_report/index.html


  3. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT ON SPECIAL TOPICS