Central Kowloon Route (CKR) is a 4.7km long dual 3-lane trunk road in Central Kowloon linking the Yau Ma Tei Interchange in West Kowloon with the road network in Kai Tak Development and Kowloon Bay in East Kowloon. The benefits of CKR include relieving the congestion along the existing major east-west corridors, enhancing linkages between districts, and underpinning various developments in Kowloon.
The Works under this Contract comprise various construction activities including the provision of slip roads, underground ventilation adit, depressing road, landscape deck, and associated roadwork at the western end of the proposed CKR.
Mannings (Asia) Consultants Ltd is commissioned by the Main Contractor, Build King – SKEC JV (YMTW), to act as the Independent Traffic Consultant to undertake the Construction Traffic Impact Assessment (CTIA), Traffic Management Contingency Plan (TMCP), design of all Temporary Traffic Management Scheme (TTMS) as well as traffic monitoring for the Works under the Highways Department Contract No. HY/2014/20 Central Kowloon Route – Yau Ma Tei West.
At the early stage of the construction. it is noted that the existing road network in the vicinity has changed significantly after the opening of Express Rail Line in September 2018. The performance of the signalized junctions along Jordan Road, Canton Road, Austin Road, etc. has been improved due to the increase in the number of traffic lanes. The observed traffic congestion along these roads before the opening of Express Rail Line has been relieved. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore the feasibility of implementing full closure of the slip roads to facilitate the construction works of this contract with the appropriate traffic diversions.
Under Contract No. HY/2014/20, the above-mentioned slip roads are formed by temporary steel bridges, which have to be demolished to give room for the construction of the permanent bridges and other associated works of the CKR in the vicinity. Taking into account the limited working space, it is difficult to maintain live traffic on the slip roads during the construction stage. In order to enhance the safety of road users and construction workers, we were engaged to explore the feasibility of diverting the affected traffic to other routes and assess the associated traffic impacts resulting from the traffic diversion.
Finally, with the successful adoption of this giant but feasible traffic diversion scheme to provide sufficient working spaces for construction, the number of staging on temporary traffic management schemes as well as the overall construction period were both significantly reduced as the result. Hence, traffic impacts and public nuisance were further minimized accordingly.
