1. INTRODUCTION

Background

1.1 Sha Tin Heights Tunnel and Approaches (SHT) (hereinafter the Project) forms part of the Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) between Cheung Sha Wan and Sha Tin project, which will be a new expressway connecting west Kowloon and Sha Tin. It will be the fourth external link between Sha Tin and Kowloon and will form an important link between the northeast New Territories and the west Kowloon, Lantau Island and the western New Territories. The Project, the entrusted portion of the Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) project, is being managed and implemented by Civil Engineering & Development Department (CEDD).

1.2 The Project works mainly comprise the site formation for a toll plaza at the valley of Sha Tin Heights, the construction of 1 km long dual three-lane tunnels under Sha Tin Heights, a 0.6 km long dual two-lane tunnel approach road in Tai Wai, two slip road viaducts with approximately total length of 1 km connecting to Che Kung Miu Road, associated noise barriers and noise enclosures, drainage, slope works and landscape works. The remainder of the Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) (Main Portion, R9K) project forms the Kowloon Section and is being managed and implemented separately by Highways Department.

1.3 The Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) (between Cheung Sha Wan and Sha Tin) project is a Designated Project under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (Cap. 449, EIAO). An environmental impact assessment (EIA) report had been prepared in 1998 for the Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) project to consider the key issues of noise, air quality, water quality, ecological, construction waste, landscape and visual, land use and culture impacts, and identify possible mitigation measures. An updated Final EIA report was subsequently completed in August 1999 to cater for some changes in the main portion. The 1998 and 1999 Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) EIA (R9 EIA Reports) reports were included in the EIA register under the EIAO as report number EIA-135/BC and AEIAR-022/1999 respectively. EM&A Manuals for each of the R9 EIA reports were also included as part of the EIA reports in the register.

1.4 Subsequent to the endorsement of the R9 EIA reports by EPD in November 1999, the R9 project was deferred to start in 2002/2003 for completion by 2006/07. The implementation of the Route 8 (Formerly Route 9) project was then separated into the SHT and R9K portions. Meanwhile further design amendments had also been proposed for the R9S during the detailed design stage to resolve various engineering constraints. In view of these changes, an Environmental Review on the SHT was undertaken to update the findings of the R9 EIA reports. The Environmental Review report for SHT was completed in September 2001 and an Environmental Permit No. EP-104/2001 was issued on 4^th October 2001 for the Project.

1.5 The works of the SHT is constructed under CEDD’s construction Contract No. ST 89/02 “Sha Tin Heights Tunnel and Approaches”. The site layout of the Project is shown in Figure 1. The Project works were commenced on 18^th November 2002.

1.6 Cinotech Consultants Limited (Cinotech) was commissioned by CEDD to undertake the Environmental Team (ET) Services for the Project. This is the forty-seventh monthly EM&A report summarizing the EM&A works for the Project in September 2006.

Project Organizations

1.7 Different parties with different levels of involvement in the project organization include:

· Project Proponent – CEDD, NT East Development Office

· Engineer or Engineer’s Representative (E/ER) – Maunsell Consultants Asia Limited (MCAL)

· Environmental Team (ET) – Cinotech Consultants Limited

· Independent Environmental Checker (IEC) – CH2M HILL Hong Kong Limited

· Contractor – China State-China Railway Joint Venture

1.8 The responsibilities of respective parties are detailed in Section 2 of the EM&A Manual (1998) and Section 1.8 of the EM&A Manual (1999). The project organization chart is presented in Figure 3.

1.9 The key contacts of the Project are shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Key Project Contacts

Party	Name	Role	Phone No.	Fax No.
CEDD	Ms. Joanna Kwok	Permit Holder	2301 1383	2739 0076
	Mr. Robert Choy	Project Coordinator	2301 1373	2721 8630
MCAL	Mr. Francis Leong	The Engineer	2685 6517	2691 2649
	Mr. K.Y. Chan	Engineer’s Representative	9750 0557	2697 4106
	Mr. S. K. Lo		9751 9638	2697 4106
ET	Dr. Priscilla Choy	The ET Leader	2151 2083	3107 1388
	Ms. Attle Hui	Audit Team Leader	2151 2093	3107 1388
	Mr. Henry Leung	Monitoring Team Leader	9779 7340	3107 1388
IEC	Mr. David Yeung	Independent Environmental Checker	2507 2203	2507 2293
Contractor	Mr. David Lau	Senior Project Manager	2601 7917	2697 1592
24-hour Hotline			9759 9852	-

Construction Programme

1.10 The construction activities undertaken in the reporting month were:

· Slope works;

· Bridge works;

· Construction of Retaining Wall at CKM;

· Rising existing manhole level at CKM;

· Drainage works; and

· Demolition of Temporary Access Road No.1.

Summary of EM&A Requirements

1.11 The EM&A programme requires construction phase monitoring for air quality and noise and environmental site audit. The EM&A requirements for each parameter are described in following sections, including:

· All monitoring parameters;

· Action and Limit levels for all environmental parameters;

· Event / Action Plans;

· Environmental mitigation measures, as recommended in the project EIA study final report; and

· Environmental requirements in the contract documents.

1.12 The advices on the implementation status of environmental protection and pollution control/mitigation measures are summarized in Section 4 of this report.

1.13 This report presents the monitoring results, observations, locations, equipments, periods, methodologies and QA/QC procedures of the required monitoring parameters, namely dust and noise levels and audit works for the Project in September 2006.