Comments on the assessment criteria of Invitation for Proposals for

Development of West Kowloon Culture District

Background

The Territory Development Department (TDD) conducted a consultation session for the Development of West Kowloon Culture District (WKCD) for all members of the Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors Limited (FEMC) on 12 Feb 2004.

The main purpose of the consultation session is to invite FEMC’s comments and views on the assessment criteria of the Invitation for Proposals for the WKCD project as detailed in the project website

A taskforce was set up to collect comments and views from the members of the FEMC after the consultation session.

Comments received from members

In general, the FEMC welcome such kind of mega project, which shall provide huge business opportunity to our members, to lead Hong Kong SAR to enter a new era of culture and arts.

The members of FEMC provided their views and comments on the Focus Questions, which are summarized as follows:

Assessment Criteria / Focus Questions / Comments and Views
Technical Proposal,
Item 6(a), 6(b) and 7(a):
Conceptual design for core arts & cultural facilities, open space, other Arts, cultural facilities, commercial, retail, office, hotel, residential and entertainment facilities. / What E&M facilities and considerations are considered essential in contributing the provision of state-of-the-art arts and cultural facilities? / FEMC suggests that the life cycle costs and environmental friendly design are the key elements to be addressed at the assessment of the proposal.
For example, central cooling a/c system and recycling water to maximize the utilization of nature resource, solar energy electrical system and fire engineering approach design to address life cycle cost, computer aided signage to reduce usage of wood, paper and metal. Recycling of wash water for irrigation purpose.
Technical Proposal ,
Item 8(a) and 8(b):
Broad technical assessment and solution for the Canopy / What are the important factors that should be taken into account in the indicative design, material choice and structural design of the Canopy? / FEMC suggests that Syphonic rainwater drainage system shall be used to reduce
underground drains, number and size of pipes and time.
What are the E&M facilities and considerations that will enhance the micro-climatic environment under the Canopy and the sustainability of the Canopy? / How and what degree of sunlight are essential elements that the assessment criteria shall include. It is considered that computer controlled mini-louvers could be one of the possible technical solutions for controlling the micro-climatic environment.
Maintainability and the associated cost of the E&M equipment hanged under the Canopy should be addressed in the assessment.
Technical Proposal,
Item 9(a)
Engineering study / What, in order of priority, should be given particular emphasis in the assessment of the proposals for decking over of the WHC tunnel portal and for building over/around the two ventilation buildings? / Maintaining the existing operational effectiveness and efficiency of the two ventilation buildings are the first priority of the engineering study.
Technical Proposal,
Item 9(b)
Traffic and transport study / What are the essential features of a good external/transport arrangement to link up WKCD ….? / FEMC suggests that public transport links such as MTRC/KCRC shall be provided.
Technical Proposal,
Item 9(c)
Traffic and transport study / What does FEMC think about the proposed Automatic People Mover (APM)?
What are the critical factors that should be taken into account in the design of APM or other automatic transport system? / The proposed APM is a good system to meet with the requirement of WKCD. FEMC suggests that alternative means of transportation such as fast speed walkways should be considered to supplement the proposed APM.
Technical Proposal,
Item 13 (g), 14(a), 14(b), 15(a), 15(b) and 15(c)
Operation, maintenance and management of the core arts & cultural facilities, open space, other Arts, cultural facilities, commercial, retail, office, hotel, residential and entertainment facilities, the Canopy, APM and pier. / What E&M facilities and considerations does the FEMC think will constitute good operation, maintenance and management plans for these facilities? / The life cycle cost, supply of maintenance spare, module design for future upgrading and centralized monitoring system should be considered.
Technical Proposal,
Item 16 (a)
Overall traffic, security and crowd control management / What are the E&M facilities and considerations to achieve satisfactory traffic, security and crowd control? / A security and public risk assessment plan to outline the requirement of traffic, security and crowd control shall be developed to determinate the demands on these systems. A centralized public surveillance & broadcast system shall be provided to achieve satisfactory results on traffic, security and crowd control.

Other than the Focus Questions, the members of the FEMC also commented on following items and interested in knowing more about the project:

  1. There is no particular requirement on the Invitation For Proposal (IFP) for a concert hall, which is benchmarked as a minimum requirement of an arts and culture performance development, to accommodate world class performance.
  1. There is no specific statement in the IFP that what kinds of culture the Government or the public wishes to be promoted on this piece of land, who are the targeted visitors, Hong Kong residents or visitors from oversea? Western or Eastern?
  1. The parameters of the project in items of technical boundaries and commercial arrangements are not clear to FEMC members because the project is a developer driven project.
  1. Technology transfer should be enforced. For years, Hong Kong has spent huge amount of money on these kinds of infrastructure projects and requested the overseas service providers to include technology transfer in their scopes of offer, unfortunately, it just didn’t happen. It might be a challenge on this topic. Hong Kong doesn’t manufacture, manufacturing business needs technology but the service business needs knowledge. How and what knowledge shall be transferred is an area to be addressed if overseas service providers are heavily involved in this project.
  2. Local interests shall be considered in the assessment criteria ie, at least 40% local content should be included in the project.

By: Taskforce on WKCD, FEMC

Date: 4 March 2004