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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (March 4):
Question:
Regarding the use of footbridges by people with disabilities (PWDs), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether there is any requirement at present that newly built footbridges must be fitted with lifts to facilitate use by PWDs; if not, of the reasons for that;
(b) what factors will be considered by the authorities in deciding whether or not lifts should be retrofitted at footbridges currently managed by the Government; and
(c) whether it had received in the past three years any proposal from members of the public to retrofit lifts at existing footbridges; if it had, whether it had accepted such proposals; if it had not accepted such proposals, of the reasons for that, and for PWDs who are not able to use such footbridges, whether the authorities have formulated measures to alleviate their inconvenience in crossing roads?
Reply:
President,
(a) To implement the barrier-free access policy, the Administration has since 2000 required that all new footbridges managed by the Transport Department (TD) must be provided with either ramps or lifts to serve PWDs.
Footbridges provided with private buildings are in general used for connecting two buildings. To access these buildings or footbridges, PWDs can make use of the ramps or lifts within the buildings provided for them. Under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance and the Building (Planning) Regulation, a new private building should be provided with access for PWDs to the building or its facilities, unless the provision of such access will impose unreasonable hardship on the person seeking approval for the proposed new building, or it is impractical to provide such access within the boundary of the building.
(b) and (c) TD receives suggestions from the public from time to time on the provision of lifts at existing footbridges in different districts. Ramps or lifts will be retrofitted at footbridges currently without standard barrier-free access facilities if it is technically feasible and no reasonable alternative routes are available. From February 2006 to February 2009, the Highways Department (HyD) completed the retrofitting works for lifts at 17 footbridges. The works for retrofitting lifts at one more footbridge is at present in progress. In addition, HyD is planning to retrofit lifts at seven footbridges and conducting feasibility studies on enhancing the barrier-free access facilities at another 28 footbridges. The suggestions on retrofitting lifts at certain existing footbridges cannot be accepted is mainly because ramps have already been provided at these footbridges to provide barrier-free access for PWDs.
To facilitate PWDs who are unable to use footbridges, we would consider installing signs providing information on the at-grade crossing facilities near the footbridges concerned having regard to the actual situation. Depending on the actual needs, we will also provide dropped kerbs for the provision of at-grade barrier-free access.
Ends/Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:28
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