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Following are the speaking points by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, on investing in resilient infrastructure in a panel session on developing sustainable transportation systems at the 9th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Transportation Ministerial Meeting in Cebu, the Philippines, today (October 9):
Surrounded by the South China Sea and with a subtropical climate, Hong Kong, like the Philippines, is frequently visited by typhoons, mostly cyclones, thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. Flooding and landslides sometimes happen as a result.
It is therefore important for our transport system to remain safe and sustainable throughout the extreme weather so as to maintain our people's mobility, and to safeguard our people's livelihood and our economy.
To keep Hong Kong moving, our transport infrastructure is adequately designed, managed and maintained against natural disasters. Even under adverse weather conditions such as typhoons or heavy rainstorms, our railways, cross-harbour tunnels and bridges linking up different parts of Hong Kong keep running to keep Hong Kong moving at any time and anywhere.
Our railway system is very rarely affected by bad weather. Even when a hurricane force wind (i.e. Typhoon Signal No. 10) is expected, that is, blowing with gusts which may exceed 220km per hour, railway services of the underground section are still delivered safely.
Since the first cross-harbour tunnel commenced operation in Hong Kong some 30 years ago, these tunnels have never been closed because of inclement weather.
In Hong Kong, we have four strategic bridges. They are well-designed against strong wind and earthquake.
The long span cables supporting the bridges have been designed for a 120-year design life with designed wind speeds of 180km per hour and maximum gusts of 305km per hour. On top of these design wind speeds, we add an extra safety margin in calculating the wind loading. Wind tunnel tests are conducted to ensure the structure's dynamic stability under extreme winds.
Although the risk of a major earthquake occurring in Hong Kong is small, our bridges are designed to withstand tremors up to Intensity VI, which means that we assume average frequency of occurrence to be 100-150 per year, although we have not had any so far, luckily.
Many of you who have visited Hong Kong will surely remember our Tsing Ma Bridge, which is an essential link of expressway and airport railway connecting Hong Kong International Airport, which is located on an island, carrying both road traffic and railway traffic.
Apart from the design features that I have just mentioned, the Tsing Ma Bridge is special for the fact that it has upper and lower decks. The interior of the bridge deck contains a railway envelope and two maintenance envelopes. The railway envelope is sheltered. The maintenance envelopes could be open for public traffic in adverse weather.
Regular inspection by dedicated inspection teams is essential to ensure our strategic bridges are well-maintained. Tailor-made devices such as sensors and GPS receivers are made for inspection.
Our railway system operator has stringent procedures in maintaining its railway assets to ensure that the railway system is safe, reliable and of high efficiency. For example, to keep the tracks in top shape, the operator carries out visual inspections every 72 hours, and conducts ultrasonic tests every two to four weeks to detect any rail irregularities which are invisible to the naked eye. Moreover, the operator also deploys a Track and Overhead Line Geometry Machine to measure the tracks' conditions every three months. Every year, more than US$770 million is spent on upgrading, renewing and maintaining the railway system. In addition, the railway safety regulator will also carry out regular inspections on safety critical items to ensure the safe operation of railways.
In view of the strategic role of the cross-harbour tunnels, we have put in place measures to ensure their continuous operation during an emergency such as inclement weather. These tunnels are closely monitored through various systems, regular patrols and setting up control points with specialised vehicles at critical locations of the tunnels so that any emergency can be dealt with promptly. Because of the effectiveness of these measures, the cross-harbour tunnels have never been closed because of bad weather.
What do we do when natural disasters do happen? Our railway system is designed to protect itself against emergency situations and natural disasters. Its electrical power network is supplied by two different power companies. Single failure from any infeed power supply point will not affect railway operations.
In addition, the signalling system is equipped with redundant computer system architecture and duplicated data transmission network to ensure reliability.
The entrance to the railway stations has a design standard of flood protection level to prevent flooding in stations. Before the rainy and typhoon season, the railway operator inspects facilities such as drainages, flood boards, sand bags and portable lights to ensure that they are all in good condition.
Despite our best endeavours to guard our infrastructure against adverse weather, it is inevitable that sometimes damage happens. Thus, it is also as important for us to respond swiftly to damage.
In the case of landslide, to restore the highway that's being blocked, we carry out road restoration works immediately. In one case, a severely flooded highway was restored into serviceable condition in about 10 hours.
Our emergency transport co-ordination centre at our Transport Department operates 24 hours to monitor the overall traffic and transport situation. It coordinates with the Police and other government departments for traffic diversions, crowd control and recovery actions. It also liaises with public transport operators for service adjustments and route diversions in response to any emergency.
We put a lot of emphasis on upkeeping our infrastructure from time to time. This year, our railway operator is investing a total of US$1.3 billion to replace the signalling system of seven railway lines and to purchase 93 new trains to enhance service quality and keep the system functioning to the highest international standards.
Our franchised bus operators are required to replace buses before they reach 18 years old. In the coming four years, the operators will replace around 2 900 buses altogether, equivalent to almost half of the existing fleet size. New buses must meet the statutory emission standards, currently set at Euro V standard. The present Euro IV and above buses account for roughly 40 per cent of the bus fleet, and the proportion is expected to reach 80 per cent by 2019, less than five years' time.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have just briefly introduced to you our efforts in keeping our infrastructure durable and resilient. Over the years, our infrastructure has proven to be in sound condition. We are committed to devoting enormous resources and efforts to continue to upkeep our infrastructure at a high standard, within a framework with Government as regulator and private companies as service operators. Thank you very much.
Ends/Friday, October 9, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:45
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