Penny's Bay Disneyland Site Visit -
Guided by Dr. Lau Ching Kwong J.P.

On August 10, the Civil Engineering Alumni Association organized a visit to the Penny's Bay where the future Disneyland theme park will be built.

The rainstorm signal was hoisted in the morning and our planned visit was almost delayed. Without disappointing the group, the tour went on luckily as the warning signal was lowered right before the start of the tour. In addition to the alumnae and students, the group was accompanied by the crew of the RTHK University series which will be aired on Sept 22.

We were honored to having our distinguished alumni, Dr. Lau Ching Kwong, J.P., who is the Director of the Civil Engineering Department of the HKSAR, to be the guide of the tour. Dr. Lau was responsible for the Lantau Crossing and is once again given the important task of supervising the Disneyland site at Penny's Bay.

The 22-member strong group including alumnae, students, reporters and photographers boarded the pre-arranged boat around 9am in the morning with high anticipation of a successful tour.

Once the group arrived at the site office, they were treated with a warm welcome by the site engineers. After some exchange of ideas, Dr. Lau gave a brief introduction and a progress report on the site constructions which helped the group better understand the difficult task of completing this mammoth construction project.

Mr. Phil Holmes (The Chief Engineer) explained the land reclamation projects and introduced the new implementation techniques in using sand in vibro-compaction and surcharging methods. After the visit to the site and the study of the work procedures, the group members all felt that they have learned a great deal. The new methods allow the reclaimed land to be ready for construction of buildings and structures in a relatively short period of time, largely reducing the construction time required.

Mr. Chan (Chief Engineer of Manusell) also took the group to a tour on the planned development site at Penny's Bay, giving the group a closer look at the unfinished future site of Disneyland. After a series of site visits and discussions, the tour ended by visiting the observation point at Tsing Ma Bridge. The tour would like to express their gratitude to Dr. Lau and the site engineers for their hospitality during the visit.