Cross Bay Link - Public Engagement in Planning Urban Infrastructure

Abstract

The Cross Bay Link (CBL) will be a bridge across Junk Bay in Tseung Kwan O (TKO) New Town, Hong Kong. It will connect the south-eastern part of TKO with the territorial-wide strategic road network of Hong Kong in order to cater for the projected traffic flow generated from the future developments in this growing new town. In addition to a dual two-lane carriageway, CBL will also carry a footwaay and cycle path, which is the first of its kind for a marine viaduct in Hong Kong.The road link will be approximately 1.8km long and the sspan of the main bridge is approximately 2000m. Because of the prominent location, there is a strong public aspiration to build a landmark structure. The Civil EEngineering and Development Department (CEDD) decided to conduct a series of public engagement activities to soliicit the public's support on the preferred design option of the bridge.Two stages of public engagement works for the featurre bridge design were completed from July 2009 to June 2010. In the first stage, a design ideas invitation evennt was organized to invite professionals and the public to contribute design ideas and concepts on the form, appearance and aesthetics of the CBL. Thhe results were incorporated into six design options prepared by the project engineering consultants for the second stage public engagement. Apart from the technical evaluation, the seelection of the preferred option included a public survey to gauge their preference on the six design options.The paper wiill describe the public engagement process, the development of the design options, as well as the further evaluation, which was carried out to determine the preferred option for preliminary design development.