Hong Kong.
Back when megaprojects like the Birds Nest were a mere glint in China’s eye, this was
the original poster child for construction in Asia.
Don’t let the bamboo scaffolding fool you, this tiny territory has long punched above
its weight.
Generations of engineers and architects have cut their teeth here with landmark buildings
like the HSBC and Bank of China towers.
The city also boasts the MTR – one of the best public transport systems in the world
… and it’s just got even better.
The new multi billion dollar Sha Tin to Central link will transform transport in Hong Kong
from its outer reaches to its neon heart.
It’s fast, efficient and has the kind of fan following that would turn the London Underground
green with envy.
But it hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
The construction has had to contend with extreme weather, and a deadly pandemic and that seems
to have been the easy bit.
The building of this line gave rise to one of the biggest construction scandals in living
memory, an episode which has shaken Hong Kong’s construction industry to its reinforced concrete
core.
So how was this remarkable new railway built and how did it nearly go so very wrong?
To get a sense of how important this new rail line is we're going to have to start with
a quick geography lesson.
Hong Kong is made up of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsular and the New Territories
as well as a couple of hundred sparsely populated islands.
Now here’s the problem, Hong Kong Island is the territory’s main business hub.
So how do you get people who live here and here to and from work every day with this
in the way?
Well you could drive across one of the road tunnels, catch one of the high frequency MTR
lines or, if you’re feeling wistful, take a trip on the trusty Star Ferry, an icon of
Hong Kong since it first opened back in 1888.
Simple, easy, efficient.
Ah…
Historically the Hong Kong railway has been the backbone of the transportation network
in Hong Kong.
We do have the daily patronage of an excess of 4 million people.
For a city that's about 7.7 million people.
To keep up with demand, the Sha Tin to Central link was devised, a massive USD $10BN railway
which would transform transport across Kowloon and the New Territories and provide a much
needed additional link to Hong Kong Island.
Phase one would join two existing rail lines to create the new Tuen Ma line.
This would provide a new east, west link across the New Territories on what would be the MTRs
longest line.
But phase two would extend the East Rail line from Kowloon across Victoria Harbour and create
the much needed 4th rail link to Hong Kong Island.
Let’s just say, people were pretty excited about it…
Don’t worry, we’ll come back to that later…
It was the crossharbour extension that saw some of the biggest engineering challenges
of this whole project.
For starters with how do you build a tunnel across one of the most iconic harbours in
the world?
As the railway had to connect to Hung Hom, an existing station on the north side of the
crossing, a tunnel solution was needed that would be shallow enough to avoid trains diving
sharply underneath the harbour like a rollercoaster.
Instead of drilling through the bedrock, the team opted for an immersed tube tunnel.
having the immersed to tunnel methodology, a methodology, it does give us that flexibility
to ensure we meet the railway alignment to connect the Hung Hom station to the landing
point on Hong Kong island.
Here’s how it works: a trench is dug out of the seabed and pre-fabricated sections
of tunnel are towed out at sea level.
These tunnel sections are sunk, fitted together, and covered over with excavated earth.
Once the whole thing is watertight, water is pumped out and bang, you’ve got an underwater
railway.
The 11 tunnel sections were created here at the site of a former quarry.
Around 160 metres long, nine metres tall and 20 metres wide, each of the units weighed
an incredible 23,000 tonnes.
Once constructed the quarry was flooded and the tunnels were towed to the north side of
the island.
Meanwhile a specially constructed gravel spreader was preparing the seabed to ensure it was
stable enough to take the enormous weight of the tunnel.
Before the immersed units are placed into its final position, we have to have a gravel
bed
This gravel spreader was able to use a computerised system so that it can not only place the gravel,
but also have the gravel to the right thickness in the right level before the final units
are put in place.
This machine also replaced dangerous work previously carried out by divers who would
manually check the thickness of the gravel bed.
As if all this wasn’t complicated enough, the construction also had to contend with
a tropical storm.
The transportation of the precast unit from Shek O casting basin to Victoria Harbour,that
would take about one week.
During one of the units where it was transported, one of the typhoons came quite quickly, so
but fortunately the unit was able to moored it in a shelter area called Junk Bay.
After the units were lowered into place a hydraulic jack was used to slide them together.
A gasket was used to create a watertight seal and the remaining water was pumped out
From here it was over to Athena and Zhi-nu the project’s two tunnel boring machines
to create the two kilometre long tunnel to the East Rail Line’s new terminal at Admiralty
station.
That is, of course, two kilometre through one of the most densely built areas on the
planet.
After the tunnel managed to squeeze its way through this it then somehow had to plug into
a station so busy it had become meme worthy, without disrupting any services to the three
other lines in active service.
Historically Admiralty Station had originally two lines go in there with The Tsuen Wan line
and Island line.
We then we had the in 2016, we also commissioned the South Island line.
PartI of that work under the South Island Line project had created the space required
for the Sha Tin Central link platforms, which we've built over the last few years.
And that involves underpinning the existing Stack Tunnel of the island line over a length
of approximately 60 metres.
The earth beneath these platforms was divided into two series of columns.
Earth was excavated and reinforcements installed in an alternating sequence.
In total 650,000 tonnes of rock was removed and replaced with 5,000 tonnes of steel beams
and supports.
And this is the result: a giant station linking East Rail with 3 other lines.
So, another triumph for Hong Kong.
Cue adoring crowds and congratulations all round.
Well, not quite…
In 2018 during the construction of Hung Hom station a whistleblower scandal erupted which
cast a shadow over the whole thing.
Everything started when Jason Poon, a subcontractor working on the site, went public with what
he saw as a number of dangerous safety standards being breached.
The accusation centred around work on the station platform.
Poon alleged that construction workers were not properly installing the steel bars, or
rebar, which connected the structure of the platform to the station wall.
Instead of screwing the rebar into couplers which join two sections together, workers
were cutting the rebar so it only appeared they were connected4.
Once the structure was filled with concrete to create the platform, this could have created
an unstable structure which could potentially collapse, with devastating consequences.
In July of that year as news of the allegations spread, the Hong Kong government launched
an inquiry led by retired judge Michael Hartmann and what they found was pretty bad.
An inspection in April 2019 revealed that out of 191 steel bars which were excavated
for inspection, 39 were too short.
And it didn’t stop there.
As the investigation widened they discovered paperwork was missing for the northern tunnel
approach and there were further examples of unauthorised work, such as changes to the
design of the rebar structure at Hung Hom station.
The Inquiry concluded that while no direct orders were given by MTR to cut corners, it
was ultimately responsible for signing off all work as was the Hong Kong government.
Frank Chan, the Hong Kong Secretary for Transport and Housing and Jacob Kam, CEO of MTR Corporation
both publicly apologised for the scandal with Chan promising an internal review to prevent
a scandal like this happening again.
During the Commission of inquiry at that stage MTR did a lot of review ourselves and what
we recognised was when there's certain parts of the work which was not done according to
the code and standards, then we took the initiative to duty to do the remedial works, so we really
took the initiative to make sure that there's no question is left before the station was
commissioned.
After remedial works were carried out to reinforce the station, the judge declared it “fit
for purpose” and safe to open.
And as it stands we, we have, you know, we respect all the findings and recommendations
and the enquiry we have taken those on board as well to go forward before our next, you
know, next set of projects.
As shocking as this scandal was, it doesn’t seem to have damaged public enthusiasm for
the new rail line.
Yes, what you are seeing is correct…
The steady growth of the MTR has nurtured a new wave of train enthusiasts in Hong Kong’s
youth.
As the expanding rail network provides connectivity to towns in further flung corners of the city,
its grateful new passengers are all too happy to celebrate it.
For example, like the West Island, like connecting to the western part of the Hong Kong island
and also the Sha Tin central link connecting different types of different towns in Hong
Kong.
These type of new projects and new lines making so many teenagers showing that their favourite
and their interests on the railway.
So.
So they always show their love by sharing their app, their photos, videos on the Internet.
One community of fans created a virtual version of the entire MTR network in Minecraft while
others have taken to song to show their excitement for the Sha Tin to central link
Another fan, Jason Law, scored a viral hit with his song “I'm really excited about
the opening of Tuen Ma” which quickly became a meme.
His tune got so big it was given the showbiz treatment and even became the official anthem
of the opening of the crossharbour extension.
When the East Rail line extension opened for service on 15 May 2022, thousands of eager
fans turned up to try and get a place on the first train at 5:30 am.
the earliest.
Should arrive at the wrong.
8 p.m. on the 14th of May.
That is one day before the opening.
It may be two years late and nearly one and USD $1.5bn over budget but it looks like the
Sha Tin to Central link has the seal of approval and its die hard fans have set a new bar for
the openings of infrastructure megaprojects.
I do have a lot of sentiments behind this line because Crossing Harbour and when I was
young living in the territories and having to take the train and then the ferry to cross
harbour, now that I can do it so efficiently I think really is for the community and for
the, the people who are involved in the engineering construction.
They can feel good about it.
Hong Kong Island has got the new harbour crossing it so badly needed and a banging new song
it never knew it wanted.
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