Arup secures $220M reclamation study

The Civil Engineering and Development Department has awarded a HK$220 million consultancy agreement to engineering company Ove Arup & Partners for a 42-month study of an artificial islands project in the waters east of Lantau.

The British-headquartered consultancy firm will be conducting a detailed planning and engineering study for 1,000 hectares of artificial islands around Kau Yi Chau as well as a feasibility study on road and rail links connecting the islands.

The project in the central waters east of Lantau Island is one of the initiatives under the Lantau Tomorrow Vision announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in 2018.

"[Lantau Tomorrow Vision] aims to alleviate the acute shortage of land in the medium-to-long run and to meet the long-term housing, social and economic development needs of Hong Kong," the government said.

The Legislative Council's finance committee had approved a HK$550 million funding request to conduct feasibility studies for the massive reclamation project in December.

Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun has said the studies, expected to take around three-and-a-half years, would assess financial, environmental and transport issues.

Public consultation will also be conducted during the study period.

Ove Arup & Partners opened its Hong Kong office in 1976 and has undertaken several large-scale projects, including the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor.

However, the company was found to be involved in multiple incidents in recent years.

In 2016, it was barred from bidding for government consultancy contracts for three months after it leaked government information to New World Development over housing projects in Wang Chau.

The Development Bureau said it found the consultancy had breached its confidentiality agreements and did not declare a possible conflict of interest by taking part in consultancy work for both parties.

The bureau consequently banned the company from bidding for around 20 anticipated projects between November 2016 and February 2017.

Arup also allegedly made a calculation error in the cross-border high-speed rail's track design, contributing to a train derailment incident during its testing three years ago.

An MTR Corp investigation report said the consultancy wrongly calculated the lateral forces the rail track could sustain, leading to the accident.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com