West Kowloon Cultural District Stage 3 Public Engagement ...enews.westkowloon.hk/filemanager/common/pe3/pdf... · Kong Limited Mr. Andrew Cheng 3. AECOM Mr. Cheng Ping Cheung, Kelvin
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West Kowloon Cultural District
Stage 3 Public Engagement Exercise
One-day Conference for Urban Development, Information & Communications Technology and Green Groups
Break-out session - Transportation & Connectivity
Date: 22th October, 2011
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm Venue: Imperial Room II, The Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers
China Hong Kong City, 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Attendance: 1. Mr. YC Ng (Head, Technical Services) West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA)
Development Plan Consultant
1. Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald)
1. Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong) (Moderator)
Panel Member
2. Professor Bernard Lim (Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design)
1.
Participants MVA Ms. Chan Ka Lum, Lily
2. Harbour Business Forum/ Dragages Hong Kong Limited
Mr. Andrew Cheng
3. AECOM
Mr. Cheng Ping Cheung, Kelvin
4. Developing Full Potential Hong Kong and West Kowloon Concern Group/ Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong (HKU)
Professor KP Cheung
5. Construction Industry Council/ Express Mr. Antonio Choi
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Rail Link - Terminus
6. AECOM Chung Kwok Keung 7. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors,
RICS Hong Kong/ Colliers International Mr. David Faulkner
8. Mr. Roger Harrod 9. AECOM Mr. Ko Hing Ka, Kelvin 10. Harbour Business Forum/ Lee Yuet &
Associate Mr. Lee Yuet
11. Hyder Consulting Ltd. Mr. Leung Kwok Yiu 12. Hong Kong Institute of Engineers Mr. WK Lo 13. AECOM Mr. David Lui 14. Atkins China Ltd. Mr. Cameron MacDonald 15. Yau Lee Construction Co. Ltd. Mr. Wong Ko Yin 16. MTRCL Mr. Frank Yuen 17. Developing Full Potential Hong Kong and
West Kowloon Concern Group Mr. Thomas Yeung
Public Policy Research Institute Views Analysis and Reporting Consultant
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Professor Lee Ngok
1. Open Remarks:
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Okay, let's start. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to this breakout session on
transportation and connectivity. I'm KY Leung. I'm the moderator of this breakout session,
which has a focus on transportation and connectivity. Maybe let me just briefly go through
what we're going to do in this one and a half hours or let's say one hour and 15 minutes. We
have three -- apart from myself, three people here. Mr. Chapman Lam, representative from
Mott MacDonald, who will actually give a presentation, and Professor Bernard Lim will
respond to Chapman Lam's presentation. We also have Mr. YC Ng, Head of Technical
Services of WKCDA. Without further ado, maybe I'll let Chapman do his presentation first.
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2. Presentation of the Proposed Development Plan
Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
Thank you, KY. Good afternoon, I am Chapman. From MVA, we are part of the Mott
MacDonald team on the Development Plan of the West Kowloon Cultural District. So let
me do the presentation.
I was sort of guessing this morning how many, when we break out, how many will turn
up in the transport group and sort of guessed quite accurately. I think the majority is
interested in transportation, so we've got quite a good attendance.
So the objective. The objective of the West Kowloon Cultural District transportation
system is human. Is to create a people-dominated environment with a focus in public
transport. As I will explain later on, on every single mode of the transport system in the
cultural district, you will see the emphasis is really on people, walking being the predominant
mode. So you probably won't see this much in Hong Kong, but throughout this District,
walking is seamless. This is just a quick overview of the transport system and then I'll go
through each element later on.
We've got four railway stations in the vicinity. Of course, this one a bit further away
on Nathan Road. Austin station is on the eastern side to the north of the cultural district.
Right next to it, we've got the future Express Rail terminal and then the existing Kowloon
Station is also in close proximity. In terms of the road-based public transport, at the moment,
we've got the Kowloon Station Public Transport Interchange. We've got a lot of Cross
Harbour Tunnel buses on each side of the tunnel portal, and also of course we've got at this
location where we are sitting now, we've got some bus routes terminating in this ferry
terminal.
The terminal itself of course is well-known to serve Mainland ferries and also Macau
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ferries. On the ground level of the future cultural district it's going to be all people. No
traffic. Apart from of course, any building requirement on the EVA. All the roads are
underneath in the first level of the basement. Between the cultural district and the public
transport, the terminal and the Elements bus station, railroad station, there are a number of
connections identified. I will explain in a bit more detail later on, but there will be bridges,
subways and as well as a ground level deck, pedestrians’ deck in an unprecedented scale.
Again, I will explain later on how that came about. Connecting between the cultural district,
Kowloon Station and primarily the West Kowloon Terminus on ground level. Seamless
connection, the large pedestrian deck, connecting to the ground level pedestrian system. So
the streets in between the buildings on this ground level are all pedestrian.
This is just an illustration of how this system can link up all the green space, the open
space, on the West Kowloon Terminus, all the way along the West Kowloon Cultural District
and the Great Park that we all anticipate. As well there is the existing Kowloon Park, which
a footbridge will be connected to Kowloon Park and also consideration linking through the
Austin Station towards the King George V Memorial Park as well. So all this green you see,
no need to cross vehicular traffic. All connected seamlessly.
Now, let me explain a bit more firstly on the pedestrian system since we put so much
emphasis on pedestrians. Coming from, starting from -- maybe I'll start on the eastern side.
At the moment, there is the Austin station and then a pedestrian subway across Canton Road.
This subway system will be modified to tie in with the future subway connecting between
Austin Station and the Xiqu Centre. Xiqu Theatre, so this will be an integral subway
element that takes people from Austin Station as well as across from Canton Road.
It will come into the first basement of Xiqu Square and then when people get up, they
will then join the so-called ground level pedestrian walkway throughout the West Kowloon
Cultural District. So this would become one of the main gateways from the old -- I should
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say the older part of Kowloon to the east of Canton Road.
Another connection point would be through Kowloon Park. A footbridge is planned to
connect this corner of the cultural district to Kowloon Park. Either it's a new footbridge,
directly connecting across, or it may be in the form of a connection using the existing bridge
between this building and the Kowloon Park through the ferry terminal itself is being studied.
But one way or the other, there will be a connection to Kowloon Park on this end.
You will see, notice apart from these green -- blue arrows which I just explained the
subway system is also this red, which is an elevated deck between the Austin Station and the
Xiqu Centre. This is a supplement to the subway system, so in terms of the transportation,
we think the subway would be the predominant arrival point, while this deck would probably
be helpful for people coming to the Austin Station on the other direction. See, if you're
arriving, you're underground, so logically you will follow through the subway to the Xiqu
Centre. But if you're already here and going back to the Austin Station, I mean, then you
may -- some may use the pedestrian deck. So this is another complementary connection
across Austin Road.
Moving to the west, we've got this large pedestrian deck on ground level, so connection
is possible to the West Kowloon Terminus or the Kowloon Station on the other side. The
reason why we can do this, it's because of massive -- I mean future -- there is a big-scale
traffic improvement scheme that will take place in this location, and this improvement scheme
is one of the reasons why we can achieve such a good design. The scheme actually takes
away through traffic to underground. So we all know this area. At the moment, a lot of
traffic coming from the highway comes through West Kowloon to access the old Kowloon
part. So there are quite a lot of traffic today on ground level. But an improvement scheme,
a committed improvement scheme will be constructed at this junction, taking all this traffic
underground away from ground level. So we will be able to achieve a very nice pedestrian
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environment.
Further to the west, there will be a planned, we call it ICC bridge, which connects this
part of the cultural district, which is near the M+, to inside the ICC and then hence Elements
and then the Kowloon Station.
On the westernmost part of the cultural district, of course there is this 18,000-seat
capacity multipurpose venue which needs to be accessed. Of course, they can come around
the tunnel portal and then walk along this great deck area, but to access public transport more
easily to the footbridges provided. One is the existing bridge across the tunnel portal and
another one, which we feel would probably serve a better transport function, would be a new
bridge taking people directly -- this point is where exactly the Tung Chung Station concourse
is located. It will take people along this shoreline directly into the Kowloon Station and
Airport Express station itself. And from here, of course we haven't shown it, but -- because
this is sort of beyond the West Kowloon Cultural District area, but beyond this to the north
there are many footbridges and also subway connections in between the Kowloon Station,
West Kowloon terminus and also to Austin station as well. So this is an overview of the
pedestrian network.
Apart from the pedestrian activity, the walk, there is also we expect other leisure mode
within the cultural district as well. This may include a thing most people talk about
nowadays, quite a hot topic, cycling. We do anticipate some sort of leisure type of cycle
track segregated from the main pedestrian walkway. So in designing -- although there is no
traffic, there will be pedestrian corridors, whether east-west or north-south, but then the cycle
network would be a segregated system from the pedestrian because of safety issues. And
because of the scale -- I mean, it's about one something kilometres, 1.4 kilometres from this
lot to the end. From a cycling point of view, I mean, it's not the kind of length that people
can race, right, so the cycling network within this cultural district will be predominant leisure
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rather than very hardcore racing type of cycling. And apart from that, I think in the detailed
study, there will be local attractions for other types of activities as well, like skating, etc., on
the -- we've got a big park, so in the detailed design stage there can be designs that can
accommodate some of these activities in a very safe manner.
Traffic. As I mentioned, the ground level will be mostly pedestrian, with trees which
can provide shading, because a lot of the time Hong Kong is hot and people hesitate to walk a
longer distance because of the heat. But the fact that in between buildings we no longer now
have cars, so we have a lot of space that can create landscape. I'm sure colleagues in the
other room are now explaining how we're going to do the landscape. So we expect to have
many trees that, along the boulevard, along the avenue, so that they can protect people from
heat. And cars of course will be underneath. With this kind of system -- again, just going
back to people -- disabled group is a key design factor in the current concept plan and later on
the detailed design.
The way we perceive this is that on ground level, there will be -- although in the park,
etc., there will be a bit of levels. Could be some up, higher level, lower level. There will
be disabled ramps that ensure seamless movement of the disabled on the horizontal plane.
As I said, the traffic will be on the basement level 1, so it will be very important to take
people not only from the car park, but also along the drop-offs, and again, later on I will
explain the E-bus system that takes people on the east-west direction more easily on the
basement level 1. So in this level, we ought to have sufficient disabled lifts at important key
locations are, so if people are going to the M+, we don't want them to detour because they are
disabled. So at the location where they're being dropped off, there needs to be a disabled lift
that takes them back up.
Similarly in all of the footbridge locations and the transport interchanges, disabled
facilities will be provided and therefore I can say the disabled facilities are a key consideration
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in the design process. The way this works, it's not difficult to imagine. It will be -- this is
sort of like a big basement, and each building, each disabled access location will work like a
lift shaft. So imagine a big basement with the lift shaft at key locations that would take
people up to the pedestrian level. So these are the disabled facilities that will be designed
and refined in the later stage.
In terms of -- so much about pedestrians. In terms of vehicular, this yellow bit is the
underground basement one-row system that I have just talked about. In terms of its access,
there will be an access from Canton Road left in-left out and then there will be a ramp that
takes cars on to that central spine.
On the Austin Road, as I said, you can see this yellow bit. This is the underground
road that will be created and you'll see a big piece of white space here, which then becomes
pedestrian deck on ground level so people can walk across. But on ground level, the traffic,
there will be a huge turn around once the road submerges at the road portal, there will be a
sort of a U-shape that becomes what we now call the East Gate.
The East Gate will have a very long generous drop-off area. This may mean -- it won't
serve any through traffic, so it is for only access traffic to this part of the cultural district. On
the west side, consequently there is another West Gate. Again, when the road dives down,
there is going to be a “U” which serves only the access traffic, but no other through traffic.
So there will be the people being dropped off, cars, buses, mini buses, they can go access the
west part of this District through this West Gate.
Now, in between the East and West Gate, there is an access point, but it is not on grade
because this is a pedestrian deck. This access point will be on level, ground level 1, that ties
in with the road system and also ties in with the submerged section of Lin Cheung Road. So
at the underground, this Lin Cheung Road, Austin Road, forms a junction and that fourth leg
of the junction which comes in would become the access point on this internal road system of
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West Kowloon Cultural District.
Further to the west, at the location where the current Nga Cheung Road, you know,
when people -- the road that takes cars into the Elements car park, that's an -- at the grey road
section and then there's an overhead section of Nga Cheung Road. So at this location, there
will be two access points, one above ground, one underground, that provides car, vehicular
access on to this side of the basement road system, and together it will also provide access to
an open air road on, we call it Great Park Drive around the tunnel portal that gives access to
the multipurpose venue and the smaller scale exhibition centre.
And coming around back here, we also propose an elevated Austin Road bridge. If
you notice, at the moment the elevated bridge section of the road actually has another broken
leg on this side, so what we are proposing is to connect, build a bridge and then come across
and make this an access to the multi-performance venue. So this is the vehicular traffic
access and system.
When talking about the MTR access, we want to slightly mention how good the rail
access is on this side. Probably people may not realise yet. We've got Kowloon Station of
course, the Tung Chung line all the way from Lantau and then coming to Kowloon, and then
of course it doesn't stop. It goes all the way to Central and then from Central interchange to
the Island line. We've got of course, the future Express Rail Terminus all the way to China.
Austin station currently serving the West Rail and connect to Hung Hom. In future, when
the Shatin-Central link is completed, it becomes the east-west line. From this point on, it can
take the -- the railway goes all the way to Ma On Shan, and in the longer term, just about to
2020, about that time, the Cross Harbour section, when the Cross Harbour section of the SCL
is completed, there's another access interchange at Hung Hom that takes people to
Hong Kong.
Further inland, Nathan Road, we're all familiar with the Tsuen Wan line, although that's
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slightly away, but in fact you can interchange the Tsuen Wan line -- I mean the existing MTR
line through Austin station. So the railway network is really convenient in this cultural
district and the West Kowloon reclamation.
But we don't just stop there. Apart from the railway access, because we realise
although it will be a nice walking environment with trees, easier to walk, but still there can be
people that aren't willing to walk just a long distance. So we are proposing in the first stage
of the cultural district some electronic bus, environmentally friendly bus network.
Firstly, along this underground road there will be an internal route that takes people in
the east-west direction with strategic stops at key locations. It will run between the Canton
Road entrance and the MPV on the western end. So there will be a route travelling back and
forth in the east-west direction in the underground.
Secondly, apart from this purely internal route, there will be a second route, this green
route, that takes people just slightly beyond the fringe of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
It will be travelling along essentially the same east-west route, but not on the internal road, but
on the Austin Road itself. But then it will carry on further along Canton Road to a location
where the existing Star Ferry is. So this will be, just go slightly beyond Canton Road,
because Canton Road is a very busy retail-commercial district. Together with Star Ferry, we
want to try to capture these people and also try to provide a better east-west connection near
the railway station.
Thirdly, what you see in the red route is actually routes that goes even more beyond
the vicinity. It will serve the south Kowloon area. This will be again new electrical bus,
pollution-free kind of bus route that has West Kowloon logo going around the Kowloon area
that can take people, again, from the further commercial district of, say, Tsim Sha Tsui East
and Jordan area.
Apart from the electrical bus, of course we -- at the existing moment, we have already
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got a lot of bus routes that either terminates or running through the District. There are many
bus routes on the Western Harbour Crossing. There are many bus routes on Canton Road,
and there is the bus route that already terminated the three existing public transport
interchange.
So what we may do is we have an initial look and there can be a potential of 25 of
these routes terminating here. They can be slightly re-routed, making a stop at the West
Kowloon Cultural District either on the West Gate or the East Gate, that can utilise some of
these existing services to help service the West Kowloon Cultural District.
So this is the kind of road-based public transport for both commuting internally within
the cultural district, taking people further to the Tsim Sha Tsui area, and as well utilising those
existing services to give people a choice departing from the railway, the good railway network
that we already have. In the second stage of the cultural district, EFTS, an environmentally
friendly transport system, will be considered. This is more likely to be in the form of a tram.
Maybe not the kind of tram you'll see on Hong Kong Island today. There are a lot of other
tram systems in the world. The tram system is actually being further studied because of
course from a transport point of view it's good to have everything on day one, the best access.
I mean, but there are some practical issues to be considered, like financial viability, also
ridership, etc. So this system will be considered while doing Phase 1 of the electrical buses
are running inside the West Kowloon Cultural District. A reserve will be provided along this
alignment to enable very flexible implementation of any kind of system down the road.
This morning -- also there’s touch on water transport access. We haven't -- I mean,
assessing the transport demand and capacity of the bus system, rail system, etc., it wasn't
relied on water transport, but I think the intention is not to run any -- it's not to run any
franchise service, but mainly this would be -- and hopefully it shouldn't affect any harbour
reclamation ordinance. This will be some sort of floating facility that can cater for
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occasional -- if there is an event in the museum or the MPV, there can be a celebrity arrival on
boat, etc., or maybe later on commercially consider some water taxi on and off, those sorts of
things, and this will be further assessed. But this is more like a celebrity arrival rather
than -- a leisure arrival, rather than commuting ferry system.
Just slightly a bit more detail on the vehicular taxi drop-off. There will be very long
lay-bys, 100, 200 metres. I've got the numbers here, but I've have to look them through. A
very long lay-by system on the East Gate and West Gate, and as well on the underground road
network, we'll also provide drop-offs for all the individual facilities, because some of the
performing arts facility, the actual seating -- the entrance, some of them, because of the
special requirements, some of them actually have to be below ground, so the drop-offs, some
of those drop-offs are also along this underground road.
One level down would be the car park. This would be the core West Kowloon
Cultural District car park. The car park will be provided up to prevailing standard and also the
car park for the multipurpose venue.
You will notice that a bit of the car park here is not coloured and it's sort of linked
together with the West Kowloon Terminus. This is true, because there will be an overspill of
the terminal onto this part of the cultural district. So in this part of the basement, it will be
the car park for the West Kowloon terminus, and this bit is the parking for the Xiqu Centre.
So much for the facilities inside WKCD, and the following I'll just briefly explain the
traffic network outside the WKCD because obviously people may have a concern today. It
is kind of congested already. How can we accommodate the terminus, the cultural district
and all of the other development sites?
Now, actually there are many planned, committed roadway improvement
infrastructure. The Central Kowloon Route, this one takes traffic across the whole Kowloon.
The traffic will get into a tunnel in this location of West Kowloon and then it will sort of
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surface in Kai Tak area, and from there on, if the highways are to continue all the way to
Tseung Kwan O. So this is the Central Kowloon Route that can provide a big relief to the
east-west traffic movement in Kowloon.
And then there is this Lin Cheung Road, Austin Road underpass which I've just talked
about, which enables the large pedestrian deck across the cultural district. So this underpass
actually starts here and then comes down all the way around this junction. That takes all the
through traffic underground.
There are also these slip road improvements between Hoi Po Road, Nga Cheung Road
towards the West Kowloon highway. Now, the purpose of these are to facilitate better access
between the ground level road and also the West Kowloon highway, so the cars can get on
and off the highway easier, making traffic conditions better.
And also here there are slip roads planned to improve the access between the Kowloon
Station area and the West Harbour Tunnel as well. These are all sort of committed
infrastructure that will be in place around the completion -- before the completion of the West
Kowloon Cultural District, apart from of course the more complicated one, which will be
available -- should be available around 2020. By the end of the Phase 1 completion.
So what does all this mean? It means traffic coming from the New Territories and
Lantau, it can come down the highway either using Nga Cheung Road. It will have better
access to this Elements area, and then if you remember, there will be access points around this
red dot, this area, coming into the west side of the cultural district joining this yellow road,
and also through Lin Cheung Road as well. Of course, from Central Kowloon Route.
Traffic coming from the rest of the Kowloon area, Ferry Street, Central Kowloon route,
Jordan Road, Austin Road as well. Because of Central Kowloon Route this route, the road
will be a bit more relieved, so cars come in a little easier than what we experience today.
From Hong Kong Island of course we've got the West Tunnel or -- because the
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west -- the CKR connects all the way to the Eastern Crossing, the Harbour Crossing, so
coming from east Hong Kong will actually be easier. You just go come across and then join
the CKR and soon you are here. So that gives an overview of the transport system and I
hope I explained it clearly and we're here to answer more questions.
3. Discussion Session
Mr. KYLeung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong)
Thank you, Chapman, for giving a very comprehensive briefing on the transportation
arrangement for WKCD, which is very good except that we overrun, because Chapman, you
are supposed to give a 15-minute presentation and now you used 30 minutes. Anyway, so
without further delay, I would like to invite Professor Bernard Lim to give his response.
:
Professor Bernard Lim (Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design)
Thank you, Chairman. Some of the colleagues in this room know me as an architect,
and the suffix to an architect, always you've got the RA, meaning registered architect. But I
was talking to some of my friends, I have this suffix as another meaning as a registered artist.
Some -- I don't know many years ago, the Hong Kong ADC somehow was trying to get
election for members to the Hong Kong Art Development Council, so they get all these art
members together and those who are current members of the art group so become the -- since
then became an RA, registered artist.
:
But I'd like to share with you today, I guess the organiser asked me to speak also as the
president of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, an institute formed about two years.
Of course, it is a relatively young institute, but the issues of urban design, in particular related
to urbanism, build form, but also how in fact all these, the built and non-built spaces are
connected. So under this topic of connectivity, I'd like to share some of my views.
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I'd like to take a moment to say the Hong Kong IUD has got over 100 members now
and not only they are not only planners, not only, architects and landscape architects, but we
have quite a lot of members who are engineers by background, so we welcome to have more
dialogue and collaboration with transport planners, transport engineers and professionals.
Now, I'd like to share in a way my art group, in the last, well, few decades, every ten
years, when we travel to the Venice Biennale and also because that's every two years. But
every five years, there's also at Kassel, the Documenter. The documenter also is a very
important, well, cultural and art great event in the -- well, previously unknown little town of
Kassel in Germany, but because of Documenter, it got its great name in Europe after World
War II. Now, something I'd like to share from experiences from these two events and the
two cities of Kassel and Venice and related to the West Kowloon Cultural District.
Now, Chapman, my great friend, he has given an extremely good account from strategic
up to a lot of details related to transport and the issue of connectivity, so he's so
comprehensive that I have nothing really to add, so I just want to touch on the softer side of
these issues.
Now, about the relationship from the WKCDA to its surrounding. Now -- issue
which myself, my institute are very interested, is how people are connected inside and outside
of the District. So it's very good. I have seen this plan, these connections from walkways,
subways and so on. In Kassel, something that I really enjoyed very much is that when there
is these few months, of course once every five years they plan a lot for that. You walk in the
subway, you walk along the street. Suddenly you find in the subway there is a shop front
and then you look at the shop front, right? It's not only just a normal shop; the shop front in
fact has got displays of things which in fact related to the exhibit; whether it is the artist
exhibition or a souvenir shop or whatever, related to the Documenter. So the subway
becomes -- and the whole city, becomes part of the whole event.
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Now, I guess one thing the WKCDA could consider is these connection points,
whether it is the subway or the footbridges, are more than just for circulation purposes. It
gives, in fact an approach of people to the -- or the whole district, and in fact then one would
in fact find the particular atmosphere.
If you go to Paris, to the station, to the Louvre, of course you arrive at the station of
Louvre, you don't need to look for the sign because the whole station already gives you the
atmosphere: That is Louvre, right? And therefore I see that all these arrows which Mott,
MacDonald or MVA and the consultant have put in are great, and I hope they can be more
than just for the circulation; but in fact they become part of the whole, in fact, district of the
West Kowloon and bring people, when they step into the one end of the arrow, you already
can smell, you can already feel the atmosphere of the cultural district. And can there be
performance there? By all means. At Documenta you walk along the street, a zebra
crossing and then we find besides in fact the railing is already something fun, and then that
already gives people also a directional sense, whether it is a road sign, whether it is a railing,
whether it is a little -- well, bench. Well, you find the same thing at Roppongi in Tokyo, and
this is something which we can add flavour, add touches, and which we would be able to
provide a good atmosphere to the connectivity, the routes.
Now, so the sufficient connectivity from outside is very important. Now, recently I
guess most of you have seen the new government headquarters at Tamar. Now, the Tamar
the very, very few thousands of workers or visitors there to go to visit Tamar, the government
new headquarters of LegCo, you have a lot of people who will go through the Admiralty
MTR.
Now, a unfortunate thing is that that footbridge linkage to Tamar government office
can have no direct link into the shopping mall of the Admiralty, right? Now, I once had
dinner where -- I don’t name the people. Minister level lady, and then a head of the MTR
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sitting just opposite me and then they were -- that was about a month or two ago and they
were chatting about, "Oh, are you moving to your new office at Tamar" and then of course the
minister said, "It's okay, it's coming on, but the staff seems to be a little bit concerned about
not being able to walk directly from the MTR mall right into --" and then your walkway have
to go down, right, to the road.
Now, this is something I guess a lot of experts in this room would feel if we are the
professionals to design from scratch, of course it's easy. The difficulty in Hong Kong these
days -- well, of course the MTR head somehow said, "Oh, there, a lot of problems of shorter
title, a lot of difficulty and so on," as my warning, these arrows are very nice, so can the
arrows really reach into the West Kowloon shopping mall? Can it really have the linkage is
something which requires a lot of early planning these issues and so on, and I think that it's
very important that there will be sufficient width, sufficient connection to do that.
Now, I -- I will still have the Town Plan Board days with KY and at that time we were
looking at the Express Rail Station. I guess you may have already noticed now there is
already a footbridge linkage to the north of the Kowloon Station and linking to the West
Kowloon Terminus and to the Austin station. This footbridge linkage, I don't know, is five
metres wide or six metres wide. Now, the problem is it might be okay when you planned it
six or seven years ago. These days, if you go to Canton Road, if you go to there, you find all
these, a lot of great visitors who come to Hong Kong with their shopping wheeled trollies and
then of course all this beautiful stuff from Gucci, from Chanel and so on are put into, right,
their bag and then their trolley. So this five or six metres wide footbridge, definitely I'm sure
when the express rail is in operation, won't be good enough.
Now, if you -- and I go to Shenzhen so often. If you try to find your way and then
people with all this wheeled luggage and all their victory 戰利品 from Canton Road, it is not
sufficient. I'm sure in future, with our good Express Rail, some of our friends from
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Guangzhou, they will then take a morning ride to Hong Kong, now have their brunch and then
do their shopping and then go to the West Kowloon Cultural District. Of course, with all
their, of course, their luggage, handfuls. Well, one, I hope that all these arrows would be not
less than 10 metres or 12 metres wide so as to fulfil the needs of all this.
Now, I'll just very quickly go into the inside of the District. In fact, the main avenue
is a very good idea and I'd like very much this section and then -- now, one thing Chapman
raised very, very good is in fact for people to walk within the District. I feel that the main
avenue is a very good one. Now, in Hong Kong, now, I mentioned Venice. Venice is a
place where, despite the hot afternoon sun and so on, it is still very nice because, well, you
have all this, well, alleys where the buildings cast a shadow. You won't be in fact -- the
heated sun won't be affecting you that too much and therefore this PR sign and so on where
you can take a little coffee and so on. Now, for WKCDA, we learn from what is happening
in the South China area. I think the arcaded colonnade is very important and now to be
continuous and I hope that, well, between one city block to another city block, this arcaded
arrangement can be linking through all the way and then leading to a piazza so it will provide
all weather type connectivity. So KY and maybe someone like Julia, the current Town Plan
board members who will be approving the plan very soon, so please look at these issues which
in fact will be great benefit to all of us who will be using this space.
Now, a last point I want to say is in Venice, you know, you don't have cars to take.
You can only take -- either you walk or you take the river. The river you have got all these
little boats and so nice. You've got one boat and then another, stop, you go to another venue,
right? So now, I think here, despite what Chapman said and what in fact we know our great
friend Winston Chu has recently also given the view on the possible relaxation about whether
one has more amenities -- well, like a little pier and so on. Now, I guess some of us who
were older like my senior Mr. Lee Yuet in our younger days, they had these walawala in
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Hong Kong Victoria Harbour, I don't know whether you know about walawala. The
walawala provide you a very quick linkage between Hong Kong and Kowloon and sometimes
between -- now, I wish we could reconsider the incorporation of some walawala along the
water front promenade. I'm most worried about the MPV. Now, so in a way if there is
continuous walawala, if you have a ticket, a ticket for any performance or a museum and so
on, you can quickly step into the walawala and then bring you this way, this way, this way,
this way and then quickly link people. Now, some people like myself a bit older now, not so
strong to be able to walk that long or maybe the electronic-whatever, is too direct because I
get too sentimental, so that would be nice. So something added to Chapman's point, I hope
the Authority may consider further. Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Thank you, Bernard. Being my senior in the Town Planning Board for sure your
comment we'll note that and make sure it's raised. Now, it's question time, Q and A time,
discussion time. Well, because of the overrun, I think we can only have about 20 minutes, so
let's make best use of the 20 minutes to -- I see -- Before you start, of course please mention
your name and your affiliation.
Mr. Lee Yuet (Retired architect):
Lee Yuet, retired architect. (laughter) First of all, I would like to apply to Bernard how to
be an urban design member? Can I be admitted if I do make the application?
Now, the second thing is Bernard, he mentioned about the water taxi, pier and all that. I
think Christine Lok and Winston Chu, they all have given the green light. That would
be -- you can apply, yeah. So I consider the water traffic for West Kowloon is very good.
So not to restrict it to celebrities only, and it should be open for the public. And then the
other thing is I wonder why, Chapman, you mentioned about West Kowloon Terminus, but
not express train or --
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Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
Oh, that's just a name of the express rail.
Mr. Lee Yuet (Retired architect):
Because in actual fact, it is the Express Rail Terminal. So that's very good. I consider
the traffic arrangement, especially the Central spine is very good, so I hope, hopefully you'll
get the town planning approval, whatever, to get it done as soon as possible I consider it as
very good traffic arrangement.
Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
Thank you.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Maybe the gentleman behind...
Mr. Roger Harrod:
I'm Roger Harrod. I work for a local contractor. A couple of observations, not aimed
at any particular person here. The al fresco lifestyle that is portrayed here for dining, wining,
drinking coffee, etc., many people know that here in Hong Kong, there are many, many
ordinances about how you use public open space and whether it's private open space or public
space, or however and this, where is the grass - should on the land, on the pavings, etc. Will
the whole of the WKCD area be zoned in such a way that facilitates flexible al fresco
life-styles? That is my first question.
My second question is you talked about using push bikes for leisure purposes. Great
idea, fantastic, but how do you get your push bike there? You’ve to put in the car or you’ve
got to put it on the train. Will the MTR let you have it on the train, you know put it on?
Probably not. Put it on a taxi? Can't. So you've got to have a way of getting your push
bike there because no one will cycle from Shatin just to have a 1K cycle around the track.
Thanks.
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Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Well, I think there are two issues -- there are two questions. The first one is actually a
planning issue, which of course it can be looked at by the WKCD Authority, which took that
into account when they put up the case to the Town Planning Board. So YC can take note of
that. And for the second one, I don't know whether Chapman --
Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
If I can sort of -- this is for discussion, get some answers from a biker's point of view
rather than from a transport consultant point of view. Like if the biking facility is anticipated
to be for leisure, very much like Tai Po and those cycle tracks. Now if this is the case the
hardware is provided. There is a certain amount of retail space, so there will be commercial
incentive. People will come in to do bike rental shops. I mean, the Authority can consider
doing some bike hiring on the roadside, like Paris and Shanghai, right. But even if that's not
provided, there will be commercial incentive to come in, do some rental.
Mr. Roger Harrod:
Maybe think about electric bikes.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Maybe I can add a suggestion. You go to a lot of places, whether in Europe -- a lot of
cities in Europe or in the mainland. In fact, Hangzhou urban site is the best place for shared
biking, right, and so maybe the WKCD Authority can consider that as well in a way that you
have the shared bike or park say near the entrance and then you can use whatever means, say
may be use the Octopus card to maybe lease it or something like that and go anywhere you
like. WK.
Mr. WK Lo (Hong Kong Institution of Engineers):
Thank you. I’m WK Lo. Means Wei Kwok Lo, not West Kowloon Lo. You can call
me West Kowloon Lo if you like. I am one of the past presidents of the Hong Kong
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Institution of Engineers. This morning I raised a question to Colin whether monorailway is
an option, you know, for the future, people, traffic in the West Kowloon District. In fact, I
raised this in the previous public engagement forums, not just that the Hong Kong government
is now studying whether this is an option for the Kowloon East, connecting the Kowloon Bay
and Kwun Tong. But in fact if we look at the Asia Pacific region, I think there are two such
systems, very successful such systems in the neighbouring city. One is in Tokyo, where the
new Tokyo area -- I mean, the District meets near the Tokyo bay is connected through the
monorails to the older part of Tokyo, including the Simba Sea, the old commercial district,
and because the new Tokyo area there is a lot of commercial, residential and also big
exhibition site. I think the monorail in fact is a very important means now for connecting
people from the older part of Tokyo to that newer part of Tokyo.
The other one is in Sydney, where the Darling Harbour is now well connected to the
most busy shopping and commercial area of Sydney and the monorail even runs into buildings.
Okay, so I think that -- I think these two systems are important transportation means and also
a good attraction for tourists and therefore, in considering the EFTS, I definitely hope that,
you know, these will be part of the study. I'm not saying that this is the only solution, but if
you think, you know, if we have all the different means, I think that would be -- it would be
definitely a very good attraction for the tourists. And otherwise, the other thing, if people are
getting out from the Austin MTR station and trying to rush for a show in the MPV and have to
walk all the way through the green dot, you can imagine how tough that will be, because of
the distance, I don't think it is short between the distance between the Jordan MTR and the
Star Ferry station. So this is quite a long walk. Yeah, I like the yellow dot here. Here you
have the EFTS stops, but stop means can be a mix of tram, electric bus and monorail. Thank
you.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
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Chapman, do we have any response to the idea of the monorail?
Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
I think, as I said in the Phase 1, while they reserve, the EFTS reserve will surely be
provided to accommodate either the monorail or ground level tram, again, not -- it doesn't
have to be the same trams as we have today. It can be some modern trams that takes more
people that becomes a new attraction of Hong Kong. But during Phase 1, there will still be
some E-buses, pollution free buses running east-west to shuttle people east and west, so some
people will first start -- well, maybe not necessarily all people would come from Austin and
have to walk all the way to MPV. There would be people walking a short distance between
attractions, but for those who travel, have to commute a longer distance, there would be some
E-bus available and underground road to shuttle people east and west. And when either tram
or a monorail or any form of EFTS comes along, along that yellow line, there will be this new
attraction and also added convenience provided.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
On this point, I would like to raise a technical issue. I don't know whether Mott,
MacDonald as the consultant has actually considered a rail-based transit or compare a
road-based transit at the proper time is always one more, I would say externalities or impact
on the environment. Actually two more: Noise and vibration. Will the noise and vibration
be of any impact to, or will it affect the performing venues which are of course are much more
sensitive than other places?
Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
Well, I think I will have to leave this until later.
Professor Bernard Lim (Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design):
Chairman, may I just add a little part. In Kassel, they have this monorail which is
similar to that type of systems. In fact, they put a green carpet along the track and then all
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the plantation, and then artists put along between the track also a lot of very interesting
installations, and so that will add to the theme I was trying to promote to the WKCDA, so I
support the WK monorail.
Mr. Herman (Planner):
Herman, Planner, I want to ask about the phasing of the connectivity. Will all the
pedestrian networks be built on the day 1? If not, what are the phasing to ensure that the
connectivity and the commercial sustainability throughout the phasing that may last for
decades, and also the well integrated to the venues throughout that large site.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Chapman, do you have phasing?
Mr. YC Ng (Head, Technical Services, WKCDA)
Can I borrow your pointer. I think this morning, I think you've already heard about the
phasing of the venue. Of course the opening of the pedestrian walkway will more or less tie in
with the venue opening. So in Phase 1, with this corner, which we are talking about 2015,
2016, where the Xiqu Centre will be open and this part of the site will be open and connected
to the Austin station. But while the construction of the XRL, which is around this area, will be
completed around 2015, so that will handle back to WKCDA for the development and
continue up this part of the pedestrian connection.
:
On this side, this probably will be completed in about 2017. If you heard, the Lyric
Theatre and the Concert Hall, that will be 2017, 2020. The other part which will open earlier
is the park area, where we will build the current plan and which we will construct this bridge,
connect from Elements across from Kowloon Station to this western part, which will be open
earlier at 2015.
So you have to -- I think the progressive opening of this pedestrian walkway, either
due to some of the construction work right now carrying on on-site, but we will more or less
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tie in with the phasing development of the venue. So the west end and the east end will open
first and then it will connect up in the centre part.
Mr. Herman (Planner):
It would be very difficult to travel from east to west and --
Mr. YC Ng (Head, Technical Services, WKCDA):
Travelling from east to west, if you are talking about 2015 or early 2016, that -- these two
venues, I think the question being asked this morning is how to reconnect between these two
if tourists or people want to go from this side to the park. Then it will be an E-bus
connection rather than a pedestrian walk-through.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Okay. Any other questions?
Mr. Roger Harrod:
For five years -- sorry. So for five years, from 2015 to 2020, everyone getting there is
walking through a building site; is that right?
Mr. YC Ng (Head, Technical Services, WKCDA):
It depends on how you actually surrounding those Phase 2 development or construction
area. So right now we have a very good holding system around and --
Mr. Roger Harrod:
But it's still a building site though, isn't it? You can see the tower cranes and you can
see the scaffolding --
Mr. YC Ng (Head, Technical Services, WKCDA):
You would probably see some of those.
Mr. Lee Yuet (Retired architect):
I would suggest, YC, to give the public a very broad brush time frame for this WKCD
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development. After that, so we could at least know by the time 2015 would be that, 2018
would be that and then 2020 would be that, whether you can meet that deadline or not. At
least the Hong Kong public would like to know a broad brush time frame for this whole
development, I suggest.
Mr. YC Ng (Head, Technical Services, WKCDA)
Thank you. I think this will be given. In fact, in the next implementation section,
which I think we will give -- this a breakout session talking about transport. Right after this
section, there will be an implementation session which will talk about the phasing of the
development.
:
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
We have time for one, maybe -- there are quite a few. But anyway, let's be quick. We
can limit it. But this will be the last three.
Mr. David Lui (AECOM)
Okay, my name is David Lui, AECOM, again. My question is really on the future
citizens, how they would enjoy the entire West Kowloon Cultural District. I've been to a
park recently. When I go in, signs, more than a dozen of prohibit, prohibitions: No skating,
no boarding, no biking, no dogs, all of those. On a lot of this, we are fighting for space and
if it is popular, it will be crowded. Okay, all this connectivity requires space, so in the future
use of space, can West Kowloon Cultural District let us know now what will be prohibited?
:
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Okay. That we'll come back to. Maybe we can have all the questions or comments
first.
Mr. David Faulkner (Colliers International):
David Faulkner at Colliers International. One of the problems with performance venues
is that you have to move a lot of people at one time when the show finishes. You can stagger
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the performances at the smaller theatres to some extent, but with your MPV when the show's
over, you're going to have a problem. If anyone's been to the Asia World Expo to the
concert, you know it is a complete disaster trying to get 15,000 people down a narrow corridor
into one MTR station.
The way this is drawn up, it looks to me as though you're going to have the same
problem here. So I would echo Bernard's view that you've got to make sure these
footbridges and subways are very wide to accommodate these people. But I would have
thought we need to a have bit more activity around the MPV so that people might turn up a bit
earlier and have their dinner first or after the performance they might stay for a drink or two
so we don't all have to try and leave the venue at the same time.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong)
Good comments. How to space out the people when the performance ends. And I
think there is one more -- yeah.
:
Professor KP Cheung (Department of Architecture, HKU):
Yes, I'm KT Cheung, Department of Architecture at HKU. I'm very scientific at this
stage, at this moment. I want to know the population numbers for all the arrows that go into
and out of the site in a span of the starting day of WKCD to the next 20 or 30 years, because it
is very, very serious. Considering the number I get daily is 90,000 people using the high
speed rail station. That is a very high number, and expectedly, there maybe a similar number
of people who like to say good-bye and welcome people there, and there are also people
double of that number coming across the harbour to visit this wonderful site.
I have proposed a tunnel connecting Central Hong Kong Island to this WKCD site,
and I concur with DAB's proposal to buy back the Western Harbour Crossing Tunnel and
DAB already proposed it to the government to buy it back. So once we do this, all the
transport reconfiguration will be very different. And I really want to know the numbers
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because people do not work numbers well and I can calculate the number of hours each
person spent going there and from that site and the value of that, of their money value and the
time value is enormous. So please sort out this.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
I think, Chapman, I don't know when Mott MacDonald started to design all this -- I
thought the travelling demand is the starting point for the transport planning.
Mr. Chapman Lam (Mott MacDonald):
Yes, exactly. Maybe I can explain a bit I think to the people concerned about the
performance venue, how people are being discharged.
Now, there are probably two ways to look at it. I think many people, when looking at
this performance venue, think it is very remote. It's located at the end. I mean, it is not
convenient. The other way to look at it is when this performance venue discharges, it doesn't
have to go through conflict with the retail, with the residential and with the other facilities.
So when designing the discharge of this multipurpose venue, what we have done is provide a
new bridge. This is a wide bridge. I think we recommended a clear width of 7 metres,
clear, which Dr. Lim just mentioned there needs to be some interesting feature that is not just
another boring highway footbridge, but also with the sort of character that symbolises that
you're arriving to a performance venue, you're arriving to a museum, you're arriving at Xiqu
Centre. But discounting all that, the clear width of 7 metres. There is a 6-metre existing
bridge. One might ask why, if we have an existing bridge, then we need another wide bridge
down here. The reason is that this existing bridge is kind of circuitous. It goes above the
tunnel portal, but then it has to go below the Nga Cheung flyover, so it sort of goes across,
comes down, get across, come up again. So it's kind of difficult. When you land in this
corner of Elements -- at the moment Elements doesn't have a very prominent ground floor
entrance to this location. It has to go through crossings. So although it is 6 metres and
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although it seems closer to get people across, but it is not actually the most functional in terms
of discharging people. So that's why we've been saying we need this footbridge at the same
time on the multipurpose venue is constructed, and I think we're working towards that goal.
Again, also the ICC bridge. This is another 6 metre wide bridge, again clear width,
excluding all the landscaping and the decoration and the sculpture, whatever. Together these
three bridges provide a half-hour capacity of getting people, can get away 12,000 people in
half an hour.
On the venue itself, there are, there is a public transport terminus. And if you recall,
even durng stage one before the available tram system, there will an E-bus that terminates, so
there will be E-buses waiting for people to get out and get in. So that's another probably
1,000 people to take them away after the performance. And then of course underneath there
is the car park. There is -- I forgot, 100 or 200 metres of drop-off spaces for taxis, for drivers
to pick people up. So in our calculation, we can probably, even before the available tram
system with the more aggressive frequency of the E-bus, you can almost take away like
80-90 per cent of the people within half an hour in the performance venue.
Of course, don't forget right next to it, we've got all the Cross Harbour Tunnel buses.
We might think of it in a way that if we take the Hong Kong Coliseum as an example, it is
also right next to the tunnel portal. It's also right next to a lot of bus services next to it. But
again the beauty of this being in the sort of western-most sort of, how to say, remote location,
is that it's got its enjoyment of all these pedestrian corridor bridges and also using a lot of the
capacity of the tunnel buses as well. So I don't know if I've --
Professor Bernard Lim (Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design):
So in response to KP and the gentleman's point, I really recommend to change all the
words anchorage bridge to anchorage decks and ICC bridge to ICC decks, so let's consider
that and make that as wide as possible. And respond to David's points, I share totally. On a
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recent occasion where the Harbourfront Commission together with Ms Carrie Lam at the
Kwun Tong promenade, I think you made a very good demonstration about walking on the
grassland. Well, the grassland in Hong Kong is, as you say, LCSD, you can't do this, you
can't do that and I hope that WKCDA and the new mentality walk on the grass, lie on the
grass and act and sing on all these places. That's my suggestion, too.
Mr. KY Leung (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong):
Thank you, Bernard. Well, maybe it is time for me to do a very quick sum up and wrap
up the whole discussion. Overall, as a transport professional, I will say that at a high level
perspective, the District itself has well planned internal connectivities, as well as because of
its very unique location, which is basically right next to a transport hub within Hong Kong,
with the tunnel portal, tunnel bus, rail terminals and also next to a number of railways is of
course, it can be more suitable to footbridges or decks and subways. It can also be well
connected to the adjacent areas, including all the major public transportation facilities in
Hong Kong.
With the E-bus, of course also it can be connected to adjacent areas. But thanks for a
lot of the comments. I have a feeling that it's always the case that the devil is in the details,
right. Whether the decks or the bridges are wide enough, particularly to channel the people
when the performance is finished, the peak -- whether the environment is good enough,
whether you have a lot of grasses and, you know, a green environment or stout footbridges,
whether the -- I would say the ferry service, whether it is pontoons or piers, that can actually
let more people other than the celebrity to access the place via ferry; these are the minor
details, and of course there is also a very important point about phasing of all these facilities,
given that the Phase 1 completes in, between 2015 to 2020. So with all of this construction
work going on, how to actually still maintain a good environment, particularly for pedestrians,
will be a great challenge and these are the issues that I think the authorities should actually
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take into account and bear in mind in the detailed implementation. Okay, if there are no
other burning issues, thanks for your participation. Then we go back to -- (Applause).
- End -
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