I refer to the letter from Graham A. Ford headlined, 'No protection for pedestrians' (South China Morning Post, May 14).
The demolition of the building canopies along the stretch of Wong Chuk Hang Road from House Nos 24 to 65 is the advance work for the construction of a dual, two-lane flyover over the Wong Chuk Hang Road and Nam Long Shan Road junction. The flyover serves to improve the traffic capacity at the road junction to cater for the forecast traffic increase due to various developments in Southern District, including housing developments at Wong Chuk Hang, Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau. The construction contract for the flyover is anticipated to start by the end of June.
This stretch of Wong Chuk Hang Road will have to be widened to provide additional road space to accommodate the flyover. The Fire Services Department also requires a six-metre-wide emergency vehicular access to be provided (by combining the carriageway width and the footpath width) on each side of the road for fire-fighting purposes and passage of fire appliances.
A vertical clearance of 5.1 metres will have to be maintained along the emergency vehicular access. Thus, most of the building canopies along this stretch of the road will have to be demolished to facilitate this essential life-saving function. The provision of replacement canopies which serve to provide shelter to bus users and pedestrians alike, without contravening the vertical clearance requirement, is not possible.
Notwithstanding, to improve street landscape, the abutments and columns of the flyover will be provided with special patterned finishes, and decorative blockwork paving will be used for footways. Moreover, additional roadside trees will also be planted at suitable locations.
LUCY HO SAU-PING Senior Engineer/ Highways Complaints Highways Department