Telegraph Bay best place for barging point
SCMP
I refer to the letter from Richard Mak (Pok Fu Lam should not become MTR construction waste zone, December 28) on a proposed temporary barging point at Telegraph Bay for the construction of the MTR South Island Line (East).
This is a much-needed, new rail link between Admiralty and Southern District.
The government and the MTR Corporation have been conducting extensive consultation with Southern District Council.
There is strong public support for the early implementation of the project.
The tunnelling works of the rail link will inevitably generate considerable excavated materials. We need to identify suitable barging points within Southern District to facilitate the disposal of the material by marine transport.
This is the most efficient form of disposal without putting extra traffic on our roads…
Referring to the sentence above:”This is the most efficient form of disposal without putting extra traffic on our roads…”
I believe that adding 300 trucks to and 300 trucks from Telegraph Bay (together 600 = 1 per minute for 10 hours in a row) on the already busy Pokfulam roads WILL put extra and “fatal” pressure on the road system. The traffic control system (which already is not very efficient in itself) is not set up for this and is not very flexible to adjust as well. Conclusion: TRAFFIC DISASTER throughout the day, causing extra noise from stationary trucks and trucks slowing down and speeding up again (imagine!!). Besides the noise there will be a fair amount of extra air pollution (the 600 truck engines themselves + dust).
Government and the MTR have an obligation to the local residents of Pokfulam (who will even not benefit directly from this line) to find a far better solution for the waste removal. I personally feel that not all options have been looked into well enough.