Bamboo Scaffolding in Hong Kong

To engineers practising in the UK or elsewhere in the world, the term ‘caisson’ is normally taken to denote mechanically bored pier foundations in land formation or a large floating prefabricated box to be sunk into a river or seabed. Y.W. Mak

Naturally available land suitable for development is in very short supply in Hong Kong. To meet the considerable demand, new land has to be created by reclamation. This process has been ongoing since the Territory became a British Colony in 1843, and the resulting land is used both for public needs and for sale to private developers. Major parcels of land are sold at public auctions and it was at one such auction, on 28 January 1989, that the site for Central Plaza was acquired (Fig 1). The purchasers were two major developers - Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd and Sino Land Co. Ltd - who had agreed to form a consortium to jointly develop the site only during the auction. They paid a Hong Kong record price of US$61 OOO/m2 for the 7000 m² site, making the total price US$430M. Daily interest charges of US$120 OOO provided a major incentive to complete the development as quickly as possible. Shortly after the auction took place, a third developer - Ryoden Property Development Co. Ltd - joined the consortium. The land cost alone represented approximately three-quarters of the final total development cost, this apportionment of development cost not being abnormal in Hong Kong. P.G. Ayres and J.M. MacArthur

This paper describes the development of the Tsing Ma Bridge, a central part of the highway and railway access to Hong Kong's new port and airport developments on Lantau island. It briefly outlines the history of the project from the initial feasibility study, commenced in 1978, to the final design, which is currently under construction. When completed in 1997, the bridge will have the world's longest combined highway and railway clear span. Hong Kong's climatic conditions, in particular the occurrence of typhoons, and the requirement to carry the high-speed Airport Railway have each had major influences on the final design. A.S. Beard