Site Visit to West Kowloon Terminus, Express Rail Link

Date, time & venue 
2010-09-18;9:00am - 12:00 noon;MTR site office and construction site of West Kowloon Terminus project

Project highlight

The HKSAR section of the Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) comprises an underground railway terminus in West Kowloon (“WKT”) and approximately 26 km of railway tunnels from WKT to the boundary with the Mainland (“Boundary”) at Mai Po.   With a footprint of about 10 hectares, WKT is an underground station, with 4 levels of basement, located immediately north of the proposed WKCD between the Airport Railway Kowloon Station to the west and the Austin Station to the east.  Being the southern most terminus of the National High-Speed Rail Network, it is envisaged that WKT will be developed as a gateway to the Mainland, with distinctive architecture, landmark features and a user-friendly layout, which will be able to accommodate co-located HKSAR and Mainland boundary crossing facilities.

In this visit, participants will have an opportunity to get a close up view of the extensive foundation works including diaphragm wall and bored piles.

The event is free of charge. The number of participants is limited to 30 on a first-come first-served basis. For registration please contact Ir Eric Ma / Ms Jenny Leung at Tel: 2685 6131 or via Email: jenny.leung@aecom.com.

Rundown

08:55 – 09:00  Gathering at Austin Station

09:15 – 09:30  Arrive at MTR Site Office

09:30 – 12:00  Site tour and group photo

Report

A total of 31 members attended the site visit.  The group was greeted by MTR representative at Austin Station.  We were given a presentation of the XRL project by Mr. Fung Wai Chung, Senior Liaison Engineer of MTR at the Canton Road Government Office. 

The project covers 26 km of railway, largely underground, with a stabling siding at Shek Kong and terminus building at West Kowloon.  The tunnel will be built by TBM and drill and blast method.  A small section will be built by open cut due to shallow cover.  The stabling siding and Emergency Rescue Siding at Shek Kong is required for short-term stabling, routine cleaning and light maintenance services.  The terminus at West Kowloon covers an area of 11 hectares.  There are provisions for 6 shuttle and 9 long haul platforms.  It can accommodate 99,000 passengers and planned to be opened in 2015. It is located north of the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) and will be connected to WKCD, MTR Kowloon Station and Austin Station by either footbridge or underpass. 

In future trains will be going to Beijing and Shanghai directly from WRT.  This will allow Hong Kong to directly connect to the 16,000km future high speed rail network of mainland China.  The trains at the Hong Kong section will be travelling at 200km/h while they will travel at 350km/h in China.  This can reduce the travelling time from Hong Kong to Guangzhou from 100 minutes to 48 minutes. 

After the presentation the group was led to the roof top of the office where we could have a bird’s eye view of the entire WKT site.  Diaphragm wall and piling works were being carried out at full swing.  The group was then travelled around the site via the footbridges to see the north part of the site and the traffic diversion schemes around the area.  After passing through the Element the group was led to the barging point where all the excavated material will be loaded and transported to mainland China for recycling.

On behalf of the Civil Division we would like to thank MTR and their staff, Mr. WC Fung and his team for their hospitality in showing the group around.

The visit ended at 12:00pm.