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The Hung Hom Bypass and Princess Margaret Road Link, which costs HK$1.4 billion and measures 2.5km in length, will be completely opened to traffic tomorrow (August 31) after three years of construction.

Speaking at the Completion Ceremony of Hung Hom Bypass and Princess Margaret Road Link today (Monday), the Secretary for Transport, Mr Nicholas Ng, said that the main objective of the road project was to separate the tunnel traffic from the local traffic at the Kowloon entrance of the Cross Harbour Tunnel and by doing so, it was hoped that the traffic congestion problem at the entrance of the Tunnel can be relieved.

"With an average of 110 000 to 120 000 vehicles using the Cross Harbour Tunnel every day, the traffic of the Tunnel has always been extremely heavy. Long queues of Island-bound vehicles lining up before the Tunnel is the least uncommon scene to us," Mr Ng said.

"Worse still, under the current traffic arrangement, vehicles travelling to and from Tsim Sha Tsui and Tsim Sha Tsui East through Hung Hom and Princess Margaret Road must route through the approach roads of the Cross Harbour Tunnel. Drivers heading for these areas not just have to put up with the severe traffic congestion, but also have to compete with Island-bound vehicles for road space along their way. Needless to say, this has aggravated the congestion problem," he said.

"In view of this, the Government started to look for a solution in the early 1990s. With careful design and planning, construction works of Hung Hom Bypass and Princess Margaret Road Link commenced in early 1996."

Mr Ng hope that long-term improvement to the traffic conditions on the Tunnel approach roads as well as in the Hung Hom and Tsim Sha Tsui areas could be achieved upon the full commissioning of Hung Hom Bypass and Prince Margaret Road Link.

"In the future, the Government will continue to dedicate itself to providing Hong Kong and its people with a more advanced, reliable and efficient transport system. This will be achieved by the continuous development of transport infrastructural projects.

"Five railway projects, namely West Rail (Phase I), MTR Tseung Kwan O Extension, Ma On Shan Rail, East Rail Tsim Sha Tsui Extension and East Rail Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau Spur Line, will be completed in phases in the next five years at a total cost of over HK$120 billion," Mr Ng said.

"In the meantime, we will continue to construct and improve our road network to make it complementary to our rail system. For example, we have already commenced the widening works of the southern section of Tolo Highway.

"In addition, a number of mega road projects, including Route 7 - Kennedy Town to Aberdeen Section, Route 9 - Tsing Yi to Cheung Sha Wan Section and Cheung Sha Wan to Sha Tin Section, and Route 10 - Yuen Long to North Lantau Section, are already at the design stage.

"Upon the completion of these projects, I am sure, our transport system will become more extensive," he said.

End/Monday, August 30, 1999

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