Smaller road tunnel will spare housing
A proposed dual-tube, three-lane road tunnel for central Kowloon has been scrapped because 3,000 to 4,000 residents would have to be rehoused.
Authorities will instead present an alternative design to transport panel provisional legislators today - a dual two-lane tube.
The 2.6-kilometre route, to connect the west Kowloon reclamation to new developments on the future Kai Tak reclamation, was planned as six lanes to cater to an expected east-west traffic surge of more than 60 per cent by 2011.
But the design would require the clearance of several residential blocks around east Kowloon.
The three-lane option would also hit schools and new and major infrastructure in west Kowloon, particularly highways.
The Transport Bureau favours the new design, which engineers say should minimise land resumption and not require the clearance of any homes.
The bureau said the route - one of 30 studied across the Kowloon peninsula - had been aligned to limit its impact to government buildings and parks. Yau Ma Tei would be hardest hit. The Kowloon Central Government Office would have to be cleared or reconstructed, as would the police station, Transport Department offices, Yau Ma Tei Jockey Club Polyclinic, a multi-level car park and several Urban Council facilities.
'We have confirmed that a side-by-side tunnel route north of the Gascoigne Road flyover in the west, with a double-deck tunnel in To Kwa Wan in the east, represents the best alignment option,' the bureau paper said.
Panel member Dr Raymond Ho Chung-tai said the link was long overdue.
It would provide the core of future Kowloon works to relieve east-west traffic congestion after the Kai Tak site was redeveloped.
Other projects include the widening of Ching Cheung and Lung Cheung roads and construction of a Hunghom bypass.
Increasing east-west infrastructure demands were highlighted by the chaotic Kowloon traffic last August after a landslip closed Ching Cheung Road.
About $99 million will be sought to finance detailed designs on the Central Kowloon Route.
