Hong‐Kong Port Facilities, Airport, and Housing Require New Concepts

Hong Kong is situated on the south coast of China and is the main trading port with that country. During 1991 a total 255,300 ships called at Hong Kong which is one of the world's busiest ports. Rapid expansion of air traffic required a new airport, which is being built on an island. When fully completed, it will be capable of handling 80,000,000 passengers and 44 million tons of air cargo annually. Housing has also been a construction priority. A Christmas night fire in 1953 left 53,000 people homeless, and the government promptly launched a program that now houses almost 3,000,000 people, or half Hong Kong's population. The rapid economic expansion and population growth required solutions to many issues that resulted in new planning concepts. The writer is an engineer who has worked for the Hong Kong government on several major projects, including bridges, tunnels, land reclamation, airports, and other infrastructure work.