MTR admits faulty steel bars found at Hung Hom
Rail operator MTR Corporation on Wednesday admitted it had found at most 25 defective steel bars at the construction site of the city’s most expensive railway project.
The corporation said it would take legal action if there was enough evidence of “corner-cutting” at the Hung Hom Station construction site of the HK$97.1 billion Sha Tin to Central Link.
The MTR said its staff discovered irregularities with steel bars on five occasions between August and December 2015.
The faults were spotted before the bars were cemented to create the floor one level beneath the platform for trains going to Tuen Mun and Ma On Shan.
Of these five inspections, the one done in December 2015 found five defective steel bars; the remaining inspections found less than five, MTR said.
A detailed investigative report will be handed to the government next week.
The company also said an independent third party would conduct safety tests. These are expected to be finished in three to four months.
MTR Projects Director Philco Wong Wai-ming said: “We wrote to the contractor Leighton Contractors (Asia) asking them to rectify the fault after the inspections, where we found five defective steel bars.
“There were 26,400 screw caps used in Hung Hom Station extension works; we have asked Leighton to make sure these meet the required standards,” Wong told a press conference.
MTR conducted a train test run in April. After the test, the engineering structure was considered safe.
Meanwhile, MTR Chief Executive Lincoln Leong Kwok-kuen said on-site MTR inspectors would ask the subcontractor to rectify these problems immediately.
Leong said if such problems continue and affect the engineering structure, then MTR inspectors will report this to their superiors.
“The incident wasn’t reported to the board and the government (at the time), it therefore did not comply with government’s demands,” Leong explained.
Because the incident occurred three years ago, it will take time to gather the necessary information about it, added MTR Chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang.
Work on the Sha Tin to Central Link project, operated by the MTR, commenced in 2012.
The company admitted steel bars between the diaphragm wall and the slab structure were found cut off. It made these revelations last Friday when meeting with the Legislative Council Subcommittee on Matters Relating to Railways.
We wrote to the contractor Leighton asking them to rectify the fault after the inspections, where we found five defective steel bars.” Philco Wong Wai-ming, projects director of MTR Corporation
Last week’s revelation of serious irregularities involving construction of platforms at Hung Hom Station for the HK$97.1-billion Sha Tin to Central Link project has not only sparked a media frenzy but also aroused great public concern.
This is completely understandable. The project in question is one of the largest infrastructure facilities the city has ever built. It will be a backbone rail link in the city when completed and put into service. What is at stake is the safety of thousands of passengers as well as Hong Kong’s international image as a city with top-quality infrastructure.
MTR Corporation, the manager of the rail link project, is trying to ease public concerns over the reported substandard work done by a subcontractor at the platform of Hung Hom Station, assuring that platform safety hasn’t been compromised.
Conceivably, safety concerns would not die down until all facts have come out and all doubts have been cleared. The MTR is obliged to undertake a thorough check to determine the seriousness of the problem and implement appropriate rectification measures. The management of the rail operator has commissioned a third-party expert to conduct safety tests on the platforms in question. This is a right move and a positive response to public demands.
MTR has so far sidestepped questions about who is responsible for the questionable and substandard work. It promised to submit a report to the government. Pending details of substandard work, there is no way we can now tell who is guilty of construction malpractice. But MTR can in no way deny its share of the blame for construction irregularities.
The rail operator admitted last week that a subcontractor had on five occasions produced substandard work for platforms at Hung Hom Station from August to December 2015, with workers cutting steel bars short to make it seem as though they had been screwed correctly into the coupler. This has raised a valid question: Why didn’t MTR take effective measures to stop such practices after its field inspectors discovered the irregularity the first time? Subsequent cases of construction irregularity could have been prevented should effective measures have been taken after the first discovery of such a practice.
The public have rightly paid great attention to the incident. After all, safety is a matter of great significance. Unfortunately, some Legislative Council members from the opposition camp are attempting to take advantage of the incident and use it as an excuse to filibuster the proposed legislation on the co-location arrangement for the West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, which is supported by a majority of residents. They are virtually telling Hong Kong people once again that they would pursue their political agenda by hook or by crook, without regard to public will.