1.             INTRODUCTION

1.1          Background

 

To connect Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge (HZMB) to the traffic network of Hong Kong directly and effectively, a series of transport facilities will be implemented in Hong Kong. The proposed Hong Kong Link Road (HKLR) is one of these facilities and it consists of a dual 3-lane expressway plus hard shoulder with a total length of about 12 km connecting the HZMB Main Bridge at the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) Boundary and the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF) at northeast waters of the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) Island. The entire HKLR will be operated as ‘Driving on the Right’ following the practice in the Mainland China.

The section of HZMB HKLR between the HKSAR Boundary and Scenic Hill is a Design & Built Contract under Highways Department’s (HyD) Contract No. HY/2011/09 commenced on 31 May 2012. Detail particulars of the Project are as follows:

Employer:

HKSAR Highway Department (HyD)

Supervising Officer:

Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited

Contractor (Design and Build):

Dragages-China Harbour-VSL JV

Designers:

Mott MacDonald Hong Kong Ltd

(for all design except structural design of the marine viaduct)

YWL Engineering Pte Ltd

(for structural design of the marine viaduct)

 

The general layout of the HZMB HKLR is shown in Figure 1 below.

In complying with the ER9.2.1 of the Employer’s Requirements, the Contractor has appointed Mott Macdonald Hong Kong Ltd and YWL Engineering Pte Ltd to be responsible for carrying out the detailed design of the works under this contract.

 

 

1.2          Objectives of this Submission

 

This is the Landscape and Visual Plan (LVP) submission made in fulfillment of Clause 2.11 of Environmental Permit (EP) No. EP-352/2009/A. 

As stated in Clause 2.11 in EP No. EP-352/2009/A, “The Permit Holder shall deposit with the Director, at least one month before the commencement of the construction of each relevant part of the Project, three hard copies and one electronic copy of a landscape and visual plan incorporating measures, including aesthetic design on the viaduct, tunnel portals, at-grade roads and reclamation and visually neutral/recessive colour scheme for construction of offshore structures and night-time lighting control.”

1.3          Scope of this Submission

 

This submission aims to demonstrate the landscape and visual mitigation measures adopted in the design stage. Design measures developed during the detailed design stage to remedy and compensate unavoidable impacts in accordance with the approved EIA report and EM&A Manual will be discussed in the subsequent sections of this submission.  They include the following:

·        Aesthetic design on the viaduct

·        Aesthetic design on at-grade roads

·        Night-time lighting control 

 

The updated version G of this submission contains a new Appendix D that provides the most updated mitigation measure plans to respond to the comments of the Planning Department.