2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

2.1 Planning and Development Control Framework

2.1.1 A review has been undertaken of the current planning goals and objectives, statutory land-use and landscape planning designations for the Study Area.

2.1.2 The Territorial Development Strategy Review (TDSR) (completed 1998) confirmed Tseung Kwan O as the centre for strategic growth in the South-eastern New Territories (SENT) sub region. The Development Statement for the Intensification and Extension of Tseung Kwan O (completed 1996) recommended an increase in population of the New Town and laid down planning and urban design principles for the expansion.

2.1.3 The statutory designations for the Study Area are shown on the Tseung Kwan O Outline Zoning Plan (TKO OZP) No. S/TKO/10 (25 May 2001), see extract in Figure 2.1a.

2.1.4 External access to and from the area will be mainly via Tseung Kwan O Tunnel and the proposed Western Coast Road, supplemented by Po Lam Road and the improved Hang Hau Road connecting to Clear Water Bay. The roads under assessment comprise three of a number of primary and district distributors and local roads planned to provide access between the various planning areas as well as access to each locality. A Cross Bay Link has been planned to divert traffic from the industrial area to East Kowloon. The Tseung Kwan O MTR Extension project will provide five stations connecting with Lam Tin and is programmed for completion in 2002 except for the station in Area 86 which is expected to open in 2005.

2.1.5 The roads under assessment will be surrounded by mixture of land uses including “Commercial Residential” (“C/R”); “Residential (Group A)” (“R(A)”); “Government, Institution or Community” (“G/IC”) and “Open Space” (“O”). It is proposed to develop Area 68 fronting Tseung Kwan O Bay as a waterfront park, which will link with the open spaces in Areas 66 and 77, to the latter via a footbridge across the eastern drainage channel. Two piers will cater for the possible demand for a ferry service between Tseung Kwan O and Hong Kong Island. Area 77 to the east of Road D1 is a landfill site which will be developed into a major open space on completion of the landfill. A Comprehensive Development Area (CDA) is proposed in Area 86 to facilitate comprehensive redevelopment including the MTR depot & station, and associated property development & supporting community facilities.

2.1.6 The MTR Tseung Kwan O Line, Tseung Kwan O Area 86 CDA, Modification of the Approved Master Layout Plan; Submission under Section 16/4A Town Planning Ordinance, Revision I, December 1999, the Tseung Kwan O Town Centre Layout Plan (Areas 45,47,50, 51 55, 56, 57, 59, 65, 66, 67 & 68) L/TKO-66/1 Explanatory Statement, September 1999 and the Tiu Keng Leng Layout Plan (including Areas 72, 73 & 74 Tseung Kwan O) L/TKO-73/2 Explanatory Statement, September 1999 provide detailed land-use patterns and transport and infrastructure networks as a basis for implementation of the expansion.

2.1.7 It is considered that Roads P2, D1, D8 and D10 would be in accord with the planning goals and objectives for the study area, as set out in the TDSR (1998), the Tseung Kwan O Town Centre Layout Plan L/TKO-66/1 Explanatory Statement, September 1999, the Tiu Keng Leng Layout L/TKO-73/2 Explanatory Statement, September 1999 and the Tseung Kwan O OZP No. S/TKO/10 (25 May 2001).

2.2 EIA Study Area

2.2.1 The boundary of the Study Area for the purpose of this EIA is 300 m either side and along the full stretch of the proposed alignment, except in the case of landscape impact and air quality assessment, where the Study Area is defined by a distance of 500 m from the proposed alignment. For the landfill gas hazard assessment, the Study Area extends 250 m from the boundary of the TKO Stage I landfill, which covers part of Road D1 and Road D10. All visually sensitive receivers will be assessed where necessary as part of the visual impact assessment, regardless of the distance from the proposed alignment.

2.2.2 Regarding the noise impact assessment, the study area could be reduced accordingly, if the first layer of Noise Sensitive Receivers (NSRs), closer than 300 m from the road, provides adequate acoustic shielding to those NSRs located further behind.

2.3 STUDY location

2.3.1 The Study Area covers Roads D1, D8, D10 and the extended Road P2, which forms part of the major access road network of the TKO New Town. The Tseung Kwan O (TKO) New Town lies within a natural valley which is open on its southern side. At the foot of the valley lies the waters of Tseung Kwan O Bay. Hills rise steeply from narrow coastal plains of the TKO Bay towards the east, north and west. The ridge to the north is the highest and extends up to +435 mPD at Razor Hill. Hills to the east are between +200 and +340 mPD, except for a low saddle (+60 mPD) between Hang Hau Town and Silverstrand. To the west the land rises up to +280 mPD at Black Hill. The development area has been extended from the north towards the south and on the eastern side by reclamation which has created a development platform for residential, commercial and industrial development. Extensive construction associated with development is still ongoing.

2.3.2 The proposed roads will be constructed mostly on existing or committed reclaimed land reserved for area shown as road on the approved Tseung Kwan O Outline Zoning Plan No. S/TKO/10 (Figure 2.1a). The location and approximate extent of each road are illustrated in Figure 2.1b and described as follows:

Road D1

2.3.3 The section of Road D1 covered by this EIA, runs from south of the eastern roundabout of Road D4 (Town Centre section), continues alongside the eastern boundary of Area 65 (immediately west of the Eastern Drainage Channel) and the southern boundary of Areas 65, 66 and 67. It finally connects to the roundabout at the Road D1/P2/D8 junction. The road is at-grade over its full length of approximately 1.5 km. The committed plan is for Road D1 to be dual-two lane. However for the purposes of this EIA report it was agreed that to account for the “with further reclamation” scenario a dual carriageway with 2 lanes on the northern side and three lanes on the southern side should be adopted.

road d8

2.3.4 The section of Road D8 covered by this EIA, is approximately 300m in length and runs across Area 72, connecting the Road D4 with the Road D1/P2 junction. The road is to be constructed at-grade and the alignment is dual-two lane.

ROAD D10

2.3.5 Road D10 is approximately 1.3 km in length and comprises elevated highway structures through Area 86 and 77 and at-grade connecting slip-roads of approx. 300 m in length providing local access to Area 86. The eastern end of the route will connect Wan Po Road at the north east corner of Area 86 and will run along the south and south western boundaries of the Area 77 Landfill site before launching over water towards the town centre. The western end of the route will connect into the proposed Road D1. The main alignment will be dual-two lane carriageway. The alignment of the road is detailed in Figures 2.2 and 2.3.

ROAD P2

2.3.6 Road P2 comprises the construction of approximately 400m of standard dual-two lane carriageway trunk road. It links from the south of the existing Road D4/P2 junction to the roundabout at the Road D1/D8 junction. In order to provide direct link on Road P2, a dual-two elevated flyover of 320m in length will be constructed over the roundabout.

2.4 Construction Methods and Engineering Requirement

2.4.1 The construction of Roads D1, D8, D10 and the extended Road P2 mainly involves earthworks excavation and road pavement, except in the case of Road D10 where the foundation of the section across the Eastern Drainage Channel will require bored piling. The piling works will take place within the Eastern Drainage Channel. No dredging or reclamation is required.

2.4.2 A preliminary implementation programme for Roads D1, D8, D10 and the extended Road P2 is outlined in Table 2.1 below, and a more detailed tentative construction programme is given in Figure 2.4. Details of the construction methods including plant and equipment are provided in the air quality (Section 3) and noise (Section 4) assessment.

Table 2.1 Preliminary Implementation Programme for Roads D1, D8, D10 and the extended Road P2

Road	Commencement date	Completion date
D1	September 2003 (Phase 1) December 2003 (Phase 2)	December 2004 (Phase 1) December 2006 (Phase 2)
D8	December 2003	December 2006
D10	October 2003 (Phase 1) May 2004 (Phase 2)	November 2005 (Phase 1) May 2007 (Phase 2)
Minor road junction improvement works at road junction of Road D10/Wan Po Road, and road junctions along Roads D1 and D8	2002	2009
Extended Road P2 (at-grade)	December 2003	December 2006
Extended Road P2 (elevated)	July 2007	December 2010

2.4.2 The construction activities are expected to take place between 0800 to 1800 hours.

2.4.3 The nearby concurrent construction activities in between the construction period of Roads D1, D8, D10 and the extended Road P2 include site development of Areas 65, 67, 86 and the possible future development to the south of Road D1. Details of the concurrent construction activities that have been taken into consideration to assess the cumulative construction impacts are provided in the air quality (Section 3) and noise (Section 4) assessment.

2.5 "Without the Project" Scenario

2.5.1 To further develop the TKO New Town, the provision of D1 and D8 distributor roads covered by this EIA is necessary for traffic circulation, servicing and emergency access to all building lots, urban facilities, ferries and public piers, in order to meet the targeted population intake for the medium term and to enable the road link to Area 86 to be in operation for population intake. The Road P2 trunk road is essential to provide the link from the town centre and northern areas of TKO to the Western Coast Road. Without these roads there would be adverse impact as there would be inadequate transport links to serve the planned development, resulting in severe traffic congestion, and/or would render provision of the planned development infeasible.

2.5.2 Under the Tseung Kwan O Area 86 Planning Study, which was completed in early 1998, it was identified that a new direct road link (D10) connecting Area 86 and the town centre was required to serve the proposed development in Area 86. Currently the only road link between the eastern and southern parts of TKO to the town centre and elsewhere in the Territory is via Road D6 / Wan Po Road. Traffic assessments undertaken for the TKO Area 86 Planning Study have shown that without Road D10, all major junctions along Road D6, Wan Po Road and Road D4 will be seriously overloaded and inadequate to cope with additional traffic generated by future developments in the eastern and southern parts of TKO. Also without this distributor road Area 86 will not be able to be developed to its full potential.

2.6 Consideration of Different Options

2.6.1 The distributor Roads D1 and D8 provide a necessary link to the developments to the south of Road D4. Alternative alignment options have been considered. One option consisted of depressing Road D1 from the roundabouts at either side. By adopting a gradient of 4%, the approach ramps would have to be approximately 250m long. With this arrangement only about 100m of the road can be depressed, mainly for the section next to Area 66. This depressed road design is considered to be impractical principally because it would not help alleviating the need of road-side noise barriers along Road D1 as they are designed to protect the NSRs at Areas 65D and 67B. Apart from that, there is likely to be interface problems with the existing drainage system, namely the Western Drainage box culvert and the box culvert under Road L652. Depressing the central section of D1 could also lead to problems with the current stormwater floodpaths, which are inherent with the new town design. In the consideration of various technical and practicality reasons, there appears to be very little benefit in adopting the depressed road option for D1.

2.6.2 A further option of aligning the roads further south of their currently planned position with the D1 road being constructed within the bay on a viaduct/embankment structure has been considered (see Figure 2.5). However, this would result in adverse visual impact on the bay itself along with adverse effect on the environment in general. The two roads could possibly be aligned further north but this would lead to the sterilisation of land between the road and the edge of current reclamation (see Figure 2.5).

2.6.3 Road D10 provides an alternative route from eastern and southern TKO to the town centre, thus overcoming the capacity problems along Wan Po Road and Road D4. In the long term in order to serve eastern and southern TKO, both Roads D10 and D9 (Cross Bay Link) will be required to reduce congestion in the town centre. The Cross Bay Link cannot be constructed to meet the population intake to Area 86 because the current form of the link is not decided. As a bridge structure it would have an adverse visual impact cutting through the bay and also would prevent the possibility of constructing the link as a sunken road on the edge of any proposed future reclamation. A link is still required to Area 86, and hence a new road connecting to the town centre is necessary that does not traverse the bay.

2.6.4 In terms of the alignment of the road, Road D10 could be sited to the northeast of its present position but this would mean constructing it through the landfill creating massive environmental problems and increasing the construction cost considerably (see Figure 2.6). Another possible option would be to construct the road at-grade along the edge of the landfill site but this would require extensive stablisation works to the seawalls and difficulties in containing landfill contaminants. If the road were located to the southwest it would have to be constructed on viaduct within the bay and again have an adverse visual and environmental impact (see Figure 2.6). The north-south section of the road could be located on the east edge of any proposed further reclamation, but this would sterilise suitable development land.

2.6.5 The positions of Road P2 in TKO town centre and the proposed Western Coast Road largely dictate the route of Road P2 (see Figure 2.7). Hence the selection of alternatives focused on the type of road and general layout, as the broad alignment of the road is fundamentally fixed.

2.6.6 The environmental benefits and disbenefits of the possible road alignment options are summarised in Table 2.2 :

Table 2.2 Environmental Benefits and Disbenefits of Alternative Road Alignment
Options

Road Alignment	Environmental Benefits	Environmental Disbenefits	Figure
Realign Roads D1 and D8 to the north	Reduce visual impact from sensitive receivers viewing from TKO Bay; reduce environmental and visual impacts to sensitive receivers along the waterfront.	Increase air quality and noise impact if the road is cutting across areas of higher population density and/or environmental sensitivity. The realisation of land.	2.5
Realign Road D1 to the south	Reduce air quality and noise impact to the southern façade of the proposed developments at Areas 65D and 67B.	Construction on viaduct hence potential adverse water quality and visual impact, also potential to reduce the flexibility for landuse planning if there is further reclamation to the south in the future.	2.5
Realign Road D10 to the east	Reduce air quality and noise impact to the northern facade of the proposed developments at Areas 86.	Cutting through landfills hence potential landfill gas and leachate migration problems, also increase air quality and noise impacts to the proposed recreational uses on the restored landfill.	2.6
Realign Road D10 to the west	Reduce air quality and noise impacts to the proposed recreational uses on the restored landfill.	Construction on viaduct hence potential adverse water quality and visual impacts.	2.6