Tunnelling contractors will start to limber up in August for a US$1.3bn underground rail scheme being planned by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) through the heart of Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui tourist district.
KCRC senior director capital works James Blake confirmed that contractors would be asked in August to submit expressions of interest for a raft of tunnelling contracts to design and build the 4.5km long Kowloon southern link.
The railway will run from the proposed extension of the East Rail line at Tsim Sha Tsui East to the terminus with the West Rail link at Nam Cheong Street station.
Both the East Rail extension and the West Rail line are currently under construction, although work at Nam Cheong Street station was recently completed.
Contractors are likely to have up to six weeks to submit prequalification documents when expressions of interest are called next month. The KCRC will probably spend a month to six weeks shortlisting groups of contractors. Tenders will be invited in about November or December for return in January or February 2004. The first contracts will be awarded ready for work to start in April.
Construction is set to finish in April 2008, although it will take a further nine months before the line opens to passengers in January 2009.
All of the route, together with the two stations, will be built underground. KCRC East Rail extensions director Lee Kang-Kuen said all but a small section of the railway, including the two underground stations at Canton Road and west Kowloon, will be built using cut and cover tunnelling methods. The only section not to be built this way is a section under a hill that accommodates the former Marine Police headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, where drill and blast techniques are likely to be used.
Mr Blake said contractors face significant challenges because the tunnel will be built under two major highways – Salisbury Road and Canton Road – which will be decked to allow tunnelling to proceed underneath.
He said contractors would be responsible for both detailed design and construction to give them maximum flexibility during construction. Firms can present their own ideas on how the project should proceed during the prequalification stage.
The successful contractors will work up scheme designs currently being done by two consultants appointed by KCRC last December. Maunsell Consultants Asia is responsible for the southern section between Tsim Sha Tsui East and Austin Road, while Atkins China won the contract for the northern section from Austin Road to Nam Cheong Street station.
