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Air connectivity is a crucial factor for economic development, especially for a free port city such as Hong Kong. This paper examines the role changes of Hong Kong in providing connectivity for the international market that originates from regional airports in Mainland China. The time-dependent earliest arrival time method is employed to assess its connectivity levels compared with other Chinese air gateways in 1998 and 2018, with measurement of three indicators: accessibility, dependency, and centrality. Empirical evidence demonstrates that extensive progress of accessibility and dependency has been presented in both Hong Kong and other Chinese gateways as for liberal arrangements after 2001, while foreign transfers are still an inescapable theme to strengthen air connections. In addition, Hong Kong retained its hub status even while deemed inferior to Beijing and Shanghai in the international market of Mainland China, especially for the Northeast and East Coastal region and air travel to Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. What is more, although Hong Kong benefited from its massive traffic generation, major air gateways would be dispersedly located across Mainland China with the rise of central China, geographical proximity effect, and differential market cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open space planning is a common issue in urban studies. Under development pressures and urbanization, open space is prone to manipulation and erosion by governments and developers to achieve material gains and parochial interests. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussions about open space development using Hong Kong as an empirical case. The vulnerability of open space and the flexible planning regulation in the use of open space land are highlighted through an examination of existing open space zoning patterns and the planning application data for land-use changes. It is argued that open space tends to act as public land reserves rather than serving the original planning intention of recreation under the current open space planning system. This empirical finding is useful for planners to reconsider the effectiveness of the open space planning system and open space protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an evaluation model useful for assessing the suitability of public-private partnership (PPP) projects by studying their attractive and negative factors. A survey of industrial practitioners in Hong Kong was conducted. Respondents were asked to rank the importance of 15 attractive and 13 negative factors for adopting PPP. From the rankings, relative weights of each factor were derived. The weights of these factors formed the basis for the evaluation model presented in this paper. The Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge was used to demonstrate how this evaluation model could be applied. From the list of attractive and negative factors the writers selected those that were foreseeable in this project. Calculating the total weights of each group of factors showed that negative factors outweighed attractive factors by 27%. The result indicated that PPP would not be a suitable method for delivering this project. The evaluation model presented in this paper can help both the public and private sectors to assess whether potential public projects are suited for PPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital investments in developing ports and/or expanding port capacity are costly ventures. The investment and policy planning of port owners would depend on anticipated port throughput. Such issues within an ex ante context are particularly pertinent to the global Port of Hong Kong, as it faces increasing competition from the fast-growing newer competitors within mainland China’s Pearl River Delta region. An appropriate question to pose would be “How do port expansion and the emergence of competitors affect the throughput of a port of interest?” Hence, policy decisions affecting throughput forecasts would be crucial to the sustainability of the Port of Hong Kong. To address such concerns, this paper introduces a dynamic port performance model (DPPM) where a system dynamics approach can be deployed to model the throughput and capacity policy within the context of the Port of Hong Kong. Focusing on the interaction of the various competitive forces that ports face, the DPPM seeks to enhance the structural dynamics behind port throughput in order that better policy and investment decisions can be made, with regard to sustaining investments in upgrading seaport infrastructure. The paper introduces not only a theoretical construct of the DPPM but also attempts to model and validate its use via policy analysis in which ex ante scenarios can be generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety issues have gained vital importance throughout the construction industry. Many construction companies around the world are implementing safety, health, and environmental management systems to reduce injuries, eliminate illness, and to provide a safe work environment in their construction sites. This paper describes an exploratory study of site safety management in construction sites’ environments. It explains a successful, modern safety, health and environmental management system for a leading construction company based in Hong Kong. A typical site-specific safety plan was utilized to provide safety guidance throughout the construction project. A safety management survey was conducted to determine the status of safety in the construction sites. All employees of the company and its subcontractors participated in the survey from 20 construction projects. In total, 1,022 valid records were obtained from the construction sites. The analysis provided useful information on eight aspects of construction safety, including safety policy and standards, safety organization, safety training, inspecting hazardous conditions, personal protection program, plant and equipment, safety promotion, and management behavior. The findings of the survey provide practical knowledge to construction project managers and construction safety practitioners in order to make their sites safer. Insights and discussions are given in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interlocutory injunctions in construction litigation cases are not uncommon, in particular, in construction nuisance cases. Despite its importance, there are only a few written materials dealing with this topic. With the public increasingly aware of their legal rights, it is anticipated that the number of interlocutory injunction applications will remain high in the foreseeable future. It is now timely and a worthwhile exercise to revisit those principles governing the courts’ discretion in granting and rejecting interlocutory injunctions. This paper discusses those factors that are relevant in exercising that discretion and how they should be assessed. It also examines the principles established by Lord Diplock in the landmark case “American Cyanamid,” i.e., how this case influenced judgments in recent Hong Kong construction cases. The paper concludes by summarizing the overriding principles in interlocutory injunction applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affordability is a dominant and controversial issue in housing policy all over the world. Hong Kong is no exception. In 1987, the government took a notable shift in its housing policy toward a more market-oriented system. As such, the notion of affordability overrode the notion of need. Like the United States and the United Kingdom, Hong Kong uses the median rent-to-income ratio as an affordability yardstick for rent setting. However, this approach suffers serious criticisms for its arbitrary benchmarking. This paper aims to examine the “affordability” issue among public rental housing tenants in Hong Kong. It takes a broader view by analyzing both their housing and nonhousing consumption patterns using economic first principles. It starts with an overview of conventional concepts of affordability and their shortcomings. It then applies the economic first principles to measure household affordability and test the “reasonableness” of using the median rent-to-income ratio as a benchmark. Rather interestingly, the findings suggest that the easy-to-use median rent-to-income ratio currently adopted by the Hong Kong Housing Authority cannot reflect the affordability of public rental housing tenants. This paper argues that household affordability could be gauged more correctly by adopting economic first principles, which render a better operational definition in housing resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction workers (CWs) are usually exposed to various job-related hazards while working on construction sites, especially when there is a lack of appropriate equipment, working without support, or being forced to work quickly. All these can induce serious stress and lead to dangerous situations at work. Hence, to prevent CWs from injury, this study sets out to investigate the relationships between job stressors, stress, safety behavior, and accidents. A survey of CWs was carried out using statistical tools to analyze the data. Five job stressors, two different types of stress, and safety behavior among CWs were identified using factor analysis. The results of the correlation and regression analyses showed that (1) physical stress is predicted by job certainty, co-worker support, and safety equipment, while psychological stress is predicted by both supervisor support and job certainty; (2) supervisor support and physical stress predict safety behavior; and (3) the risk of accidents can be reduced by safety behavior, whereas a high level of job control increases it. Finally, several recommendations are made, including on-the-job training, stress-reduction programs, and appropriate employment policies, to enhance safety behavior and decrease the number of accidents on construction sites. This paper provides empirical support to and extends some accident-causation theories, and sets a base for further study regarding stress management for Hong Kong's construction participants working in Mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants and structure of public sector rents in Hong Kong. It looks at the trends and patterns of public housing rents over the past 20 years or so. The paper discusses the housing authority's setting approach and its inherent shortcomings with regard to income generation, equity, and efficiency. It presents a framework that examines the literature to clarify the underlying factors affecting public housing rents in the context of rent review and rent structure and formulates two interrelated rent models to test hypotheses about these factors. One is a time-series model to ascertain which factors determine rents over time, and the other is a cross-sectional model to quantify the implicit rents of different housing attributes (i.e., the “relativities”). The final section draws out some conclusions about the mechanisms by which the housing authority determines rents and some implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable amount of solid wastes is generated every year from construction and demolition (C&D) activities in Hong Kong. The C&D waste can be classified into inert and noninert wastes, in which the inert waste is normally disposed of in public fills as reclamation materials and the noninert waste is dumped at landfills. Under the current waste generation trend, all landfills and public fills in Hong Kong will be used up within a few years. To tackle this problem, in December of 2005, the Hong Kong Government implemented the Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme (CWDCS) to provide financial incentives to C&D waste generators to reduce waste and encourage reuse and recycling. This paper presents the results of a study to explore the perceptions of the Hong Kong construction participants toward the CWDCS after three years of implementation. The study was conducted by a survey with follow-up interviews to experienced professionals in the building industry. The results revealed no consensus view among the construction participants on C&D waste reduction, especially regarding on-site waste sorting and recycling. The findings also revealed that 40% of the survey respondents believed that waste reduction is less than 5% after CWDCS was implemented. The interviewees expressed that some waste generation was unavoidable, although a waste disposal charge has been imposed. In addition, 30% of survey respondents agreed that the cost of CWDCS was not high enough to raise awareness about waste management on construction sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large lateral movements of a pile during impact driving can cause yielding of the surrounding soil. When this happens, the effective stresses between the soil and the pile wall diminish, and the pile shaft resistance decreases. A piling project was carried out in a marble area in Hong Kong, where highly variable rockhead contours and deep depressions filled with weak soil deposits were found. Many steel H-piles were driven to depths of more than 100 m, and the verticality of such long piles was a concern. A pile test program consisting of four driven steel H-piles with pile lengths up to 164.5 m was conducted. Verticality monitoring and dynamic pile tests at several penetration depths were performed. This paper aims at interpreting the verticality of the four long piles, studying the relevance of pile verticality to the encountered geological features, and studying the effect of pile verticality on the pile capacity. The maximum lateral pile movement during driving was up to 8.7 m at a depth of 100 m, and the maximum local pile inclination reached 0.139. The lateral movements of the piles during driving well matched the rockhead inclination and soil conditions. Both one-way sway and two-way cyclic sway of the test piles were observed. Cyclic sway was shown to cause more severe reduction of the pile shaft resistance than one-way sway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new method for estimating the base capacity of open-ended steel pipe piles in sand, a difficult problem involving great uncertainty in pile foundation design. The method, referred to as the Hong Kong University (HKU) method, is based on the cone penetration test (CPT), and takes into consideration the mechanisms of annulus and plug resistance mobilization. In this method the annulus resistance is properly linked to the ratio of the pile length to the diameter-a key factor reflecting the influence of pile embedment-whereas the plug resistance is related to the plug length ratio, which reflects the degree of soil plugging in a practical yet rational way. The cone tip resistance is averaged over a zone in the vicinity of the pile base by taking into account the failure mechanism of the piles in sand, the condition of pile embedment (i.e., full or partial embedment), and the effect of soil compressibility. The predictive performance of the new method is assessed against a number of well-documented field tests including two fully instrumented large-diameter offshore piles, and through comparisons with major CPT-based methods in current engineering practice. The assessment indicates that the HKU method has attractive capabilities and advantages that render it a promising option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents work on validating the dynamic wind load predicted by a wind tunnel model with the values identified from full-scale field vibration data of a super-tall building in Hong Kong. Dynamic wind load in this work refers to the power spectral density (PSD) of the modal force near the natural frequency of a particular mode of the building, in the context of random vibration with stationary loading and response. This quantity reflects the turbulence characteristics integrated over the building body and is of importance in wind engineering design. This study presents a method to predict the modal PSD of wind load of the first two translational modes of a tall building. The method combines wind tunnel test information and mean wind data available in the free field; the latter taken to be at the Waglan Island station maintained by the Hong Kong Observatory. On the full-scale side, although the modal PSD is not directly observable, it is identified from field vibration data measured at the building top during strong wind events. A Bayesian modal identification method is used for determining the most probable value and the uncertainty of the modal parameters including the natural frequency, damping ratio, and the modal PSD. A number of recent strong wind events are analyzed. Reasonable agreement is observed between the wind tunnel model predictions and the values identified from field data. Factors that can potentially lead to discrepancy are discussed. As the same random vibration modeling consistent with conventional wind engineering design has been used in the wind tunnel prediction model and field identification model, the results are directly transferable among these three disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a simplified analytical method that considers postinstallation normal stress, normal stress due to soil dilation, and grouting pressure when calculating the maximum shear stress of the nail-soil interface. Systematic test results from two previous publications were used to verify the accuracy of the proposed method. The Hong Kong design method was also used to determine the maximum shear stress of the nail-soil interface. These analyses confirmed that the experimental data were more accurately predicted by the proposed analytical method. An extensive parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of several key parameters on the maximum shear stress. It was observed that when there was no grouting pressure, maximum shear stress increased with increasing overburden pressure, failure surface distance, dilation angle, or decreased drill hole radius. Analysis using the proposed model also demonstrates that grouting and overburden pressures share an interactional effect. The larger the grouting pressure, the greater the influence of the overburden pressure; and, consequently, the larger the maximum shear stress at the nail-soil interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a changing competition environment, strategic management has become of essential importance to construction firms. Effective strategy enables construction firms to match their activities to the changing environment and achieve superior performance in competition. Therefore, there is a need for studying contractors' competitive strategies. This paper does that in relation to the Hong Kong construction industry. The impact of competition environment on contractor performance, and the relationship between competitive strategy and performance are examined by a questionnaire survey. The findings show that competition environment has a great impact on contractor performance, and four generic competitive strategies have been applied by contractors. Contractors can indeed be classified into four groups according to their different strategic orientations: prospectors, analyzers, defenders, and reactors. As a result, the strategies that contractors should pursue in the local construction industry can be identified with confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil nailing is an effective and practical means for stabilizing slopes and supporting excavations. It has been used extensively in slope improvement works in Hong Kong since the mid-1990s. However, once a soil nail has been installed, it is difficult to check its quality, such as the length of the steel bar and the integrity of cement grout annulus. To enhance the quality control of soil-nail installation works, the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) of the Civil Engineering and Development Department in Hong Kong has carried out a study to identify and develop nondestructive means for checking the quality of installed soil nails. Among the various techniques tried, time-domain reflectometry (TDR) was found to be the simplest, quickest, and least expensive. Since then, a large number of field measurements have been taken to gain experience on the practicality and reliability of this technique. In mid-2004, the GEO introduced TDR to its soil-nailing works under the Landslip Preventive Measures Programme for pilot use during independent site audits. In 2007, an independent review was carried out that supports the continual use of TDR in the program and suggests further enhancement of the sampling strategy of the assurance program. This paper gives an overview of the use of TDR in assessing the quality of steel soil nails with preinstalled wires. The sources of uncertainty in relation to the test are discussed. It also describes cases in which TDR has identified anomalies and the corresponding follow-up actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transaction costs (TC) in property development incurred by complying with planning regulations can be unpredictable and extremely high, especially under a high land-price policy in which property developers have to pay approximately 60% of the total project cost, the land price, on day one. The aim of this paper is to identify the property developers' primary cost concerns arising from the planning regulations in Hong Kong, which is subject to a high land-price policy. Sixteen structured interviews with experienced senior industry practitioners were performed to collect their insights. The qualitative research analytical tool NVivo was used for the data analysis. Results showed that developers' primary cost concerns arose out of regulatory uncertainties attributable to unclear and unexplained approval and rejection criteria and to regulatory ambiguities. Such uncertainties can cause project delays and defer developers' investment returns. Understanding the regulatory TCs of planning regulations would enable project stakeholders to take early actions to reduce or avoid such costs. The research findings would also help policy-makers to formulate more effective strategies to reduce unnecessary regulatory costs and eventually enhance policy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since information and communication technology (ICT) was introduced into the construction industry over a decade ago, the once fledging technologies have now been well developed. ICT has been commonly adopted, particularly in places where speedy construction is the norm, e.g., in Hong Kong. At the time when ICT is seemingly well developed, this paper aims at identifying the difficulties and hindrances facing the end users of such information exchange systems during design and construction and the consequential effects on project performance. Through literature review, a series of structured interviews, and a questionnaire survey, it is found that industry users welcomed the advancement of ICT, but that the necessary technical and psychological supports from their organizations were insufficiently provided. In addition, significant differences on the hindrances and their consequential effects have been identified between end users in the private sector and those in the public sector. The study findings have also highlighted factors impeding the smooth implementation of ICT systems at the end-user level, which would help organizations to formulate effective strategies to cope with ever-evolving communication technologies and changes in working style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A widely recognized theme of construction economics suggests that the cost of construction per square meter increases as building height rises. However, over a number of years, research conducted regarding the height and cost issue has established a classic relationship between the two factors which can be represented by a U-shaped curve. This paper describes the study of the height-cost relationship of high-rise residential buildings in Shanghai in terms of the total construction cost and elemental costs while considering the context and commonality of buildings. This research was developed as an extension of the previous work, which examined data for buildings in Hong Kong. Initial findings indicate that the curves illustrating the relationships between height and cost of residential buildings in Shanghai and Hong Kong exhibit different profiles. The dissimilarities indicate that different sets of criteria should be applied in the judgment of height that affects cost in different locations. In terms of elemental costs, the findings suggest that there are differences in the way these costs react to changes in the building height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the design and actual founding depths of foundations correspond to the variability of geological conditions has long been a concern. This paper evaluates the spatial variability characteristics of as-built and estimated founding depths of driven steel H piles with reference to the spatial variability characteristics of geologic profiles at a weathered soil site in Hong Kong. Spatial variability characteristics are evaluated in terms of variance and scale of fluctuation. The variability of three founding depth indicators, i.e., the depth of Grade-III bedrock, the depth of standard penetration test blow count 'N' of 200 blows/0.3 m (SPT-200), and the depth of completely decomposed granite over the site was estimated. It is found that pile founding depths exhibit greater variations than those of the geologic profiles due to the presence of design model errors, judgment errors, and construction effects. The as-built founding depths are mostly between the SPT-200 profile and the Grade-III bedrock profile. The variances of as-built pile length are similar to those with depth of SPT-200 but less than those with depth of Grade-III bedrock. The scale of fluctuation of as-built pile length is on the order of 20 m when kriging is used and 10 m when kriging is not used, which are less than those with depths of SPT-200 and Grade-III bedrock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selecting an appropriate competition strategy in bidding is the ambition of most contractors. The multiple requirements of clients encourage contractors to consider other strategies to deliver additional benefits besides offering a low-price bid. Offering low bids will reduce contractors' profits and potentially make development less attractive. Contractors need to understand their specific resources that generate competitive advantage and accordingly develop strategies to win contracts. This paper reports the findings from a recent survey on competition strategies in the Hong Kong construction industry. Thirteen typical bidding strategies, their used frequency in bidding, and their effectiveness for winning contracts of different types and between different groups of contractors are studied. The analysis of findings is explored to provide local contractors and clients with new insights into competition strategies in bidding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate training can only be developed if training needs for specific skills are carefully identified. This paper, further to an aggregate model developed previously, aims to forecast the occupational share of the aggregate manpower demand for the construction industry of Hong Kong. The forecast, based on existing manpower statistics, is divided into two levels: broad occupations and detailed occupations. The broad occupational demand forecasting model is formulated using a time-series regression analysis to derive the relationship between the occupational share and the construction output cycle, technology, and various work-mix variables; whereas exponential smoothing technique is used to forecast the share of detailed occupations. This occupational demand estimation can provide solid information to facilitate manpower planning. It enables the policymakers to foresee the trends of occupational manpower demand and formulate policies and training and retraining programs tailored to deal effectively with the industry’s human resource requirements in this critical sector of the economy. Although the study focuses on developing models for the Hong Kong construction labor market, the adopted methodology can be applied in other labor markets to develop such models for manpower planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As value management (VM) has been increasingly applied to enhance value in public construction projects, the core subject entitled “Value Management for Construction and Property” is being offered to postgraduate students in the Department of Building and Real Estate at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Under the new outcome-based curriculum, the learning outcomes, pedagogy of teaching VM, and activities of the VM workshops for the subject are described in this paper. The results of a questionnaire survey of the students’ feedback on the performance of the workshops for the academic year 2007–2008 are presented and discussed. Students believed that value management workshops are essential in the curriculum. They expressed that it was a valuable experience to participate in the VM workshop which enabled them to have a better understanding of the subject. Some improvement is also recommended for future organization and management of workshops based on the lessons learned in these workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-private partnership (PPP) has been practiced for quite some time around the world and there are numerous infrastructure, construction, and building projects which are employing the concepts. Unfortunately, not all of these PPP projects are equally successful and some of these projects have been exposed to formidable obstacles. The need to identify potential obstacles for PPP projects is therefore becoming an important issue for both research and practice. Despite the amount of interest vested in PPP, it is normally the advantages of PPP that are touched on rather than the potential obstacles. Both Beijing and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (referred to as Hong Kong from here onwards) have been keen to introduce more PPP projects. This paper presents part of the findings of an empirical questionnaire survey in relation to the prevailing barriers to PPP success conducted in these two administrative systems. It was anticipated that the obstacles would be similar for these jurisdictions. Respondents were asked to rate the level of severity of thirteen potential obstacles toward PPP projects identified from a literature review. The top three obstacles rated by the Beijing respondents were found to be “lengthy delays in negotiation,” “lack of experience and appropriate skills,” and “lengthy delays because of political debate.” Similarly the first and third obstacles ranked by the Beijing respondents were also ranked within top three by the Hong Kong respondents, together with “very few schemes have actually reached the contract stage (aborted before contract).” It was also discerned that “less employment positions,” “reduce the project accountability,” and “high project costs” were all ranked bottom by both of the Beijing and Hong Kong respondents. Moreover, the results obtained in the United Kingdom reported in other studies also shown consistency with those of Beijing and Hong Kong. Therefore the research hypothesis was proved to be true. Although the importance of the obstacles was similar it was realized that the scores obtained in the United Kingdom survey were much lower. This observation showed that the British respondents were less threatened by the obstacles, probably due to the fact that they are much more experienced and confident in undertaking PPP projects compared to Beijing and Hong Kong. Further analysis of the data reflected that the responses within each administrative system were consistent as revealed from the Kendall’s concordance analysis. Although the Spearman rank correlation test indicated that there was no significant disagreement on the rankings of obstacles between respondents of the two administrative systems, considerable difference was detected by the independent two-sample t-test in the mean value of their responses between the two administrative systems for the two obstacles lack of experience and appropriate skills and lengthy delays in negotiation. In Beijing, respondents felt that lack of experience and appropriate skills were highly important ranking it second place, but in Hong Kong this obstacle was ranked eighth, showing their confidence in experience and skills. For lengthy delays in negotiation, although the ranking between Beijing and Hong Kong was similar the difference in score showed a large variation. This represents a difference in tendering procedures between the two administrative regions. Triangulation with real cases largely supports the survey findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The private sector has long been involved in delivering public sector projects, whether its role has been as a partner or just as a contractor for the government. Over recent years the interest in adopting public private partnerships (PPPs) has increased internationally. Many research studies have presented positive reasons for the governments and the private sector to welcome this form of procurement, rather than continue adopting the traditional options. This paper aims to explore and compare the key drivers for adopting PPP in China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (referred to as Hong Kong from here onwards). An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted in both of these administrative systems and survey respondents were invited to rate their perceptions on the importance of 15 different drivers identified. Eighty-seven completed survey questionnaires were returned for analysis. The findings indicated that respondents from China rated economy-related drivers higher, whereas Hong Kong respondents tended to rate efficiency-related drivers higher. China’s demand for more public infrastructure and services has imposed great pressure on the government’s budget, and therefore economic drivers were rated higher. On the other hand, with adequate financial reserve in hand and budget surplus over recent years, Hong Kong has tended to prefer paying for projects upfront, and hence efficiency was regarded more significantly. Among the 15 drivers, both of the respondents from China and Hong Kong selected, “provide an integrated solution (for public infrastructure/services)” and “solve the problem of public sector budget restraint” to be within the top three drivers. Despite the general agreement on the ranking pattern, the results of independent two-sample t-test showed that China and Hong Kong shared very different views on the driver “reduce the total project cost.” This driver was ranked rather high by the mainland Chinese respondents, but much lower by the Hong Kong respondents. This finding can be construed that economic drivers are in general rated higher in China as compared to that in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private finance initiative (PFI) has emerged to be a viable strategy for governments to transfer financial risks in public projects to the private sector. It does not only help tap the efficiency and finances of the private sector but it also promises to deliver better public services to the community. Despite these obvious incentives, there is still a low PFI diffusion in Hong Kong. Based on this understanding, we have undertaken this exploratory study, which is probably the first of its kind, to investigate the PFI’s financial issues from the perspective of financial suppliers. This study was intended to identify factors that may affect the perception of the supplier side and to explore ways to facilitate their participation in PFI projects. The findings suggest that respondents had low level of understanding and knowledge of the PFI and they perceived that PFI public projects had an average risk and performance. To increase their involvement, several enablers are provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crucial problem of construction debris is of increasing concern in Hong Kong. In the construction industry, the electrical and mechanical (E&M) installations in the infrastructure, for example, buildings, tunnels, or dams, are some of the major and usually complex components. Difficulty in coordinating the various trades affects productivity in general, and has a major impact on the quantity of construction debris. By identifying the sources of waste at each stage of E&M engineering work, some of the construction debris can be eliminated at the source during production. This paper investigates the critical production shortcomings in the E&M sector in Hong Kong. The study is based on a survey that includes a preliminary questionnaire survey, brainstorming exercises with a focus group, structured interviews with experienced frontline supervisors, and a second focus group exercise to test findings and proposed measures. The principal findings are that “poor coordination” and “design changes and/or errors” are major contributors to variations or change orders and rework, which in turn result in a high volume of construction debris. The results also indicate that construction debris can be minimized in the E&M sector of the construction industry, if the material wastes from incidental work are reduced and also controlled better in a new work process flow pattern through recommended construction project management improvements for reducing critical production shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In infrastructure development through public-private partnerships (PPPs), governments worldwide often preset the concession period to a fixed length and then invite the private sector to bid on other aspects of the project. This practice has potential economic, financial, and social problems as shown in a case study of Hong Kong tunnel projects. To overcome these problems, this paper has proposed a win–win concession period determination methodology, in which PPPs are addressed as a principal-agent maximization problem. Both deterministic and simulation-based methods are provided to determine the concession period, with detailed step-by-step procedures. These methods take into consideration the financial characteristics of PPPs and the construction and operation requirements. In particular, the simulation-based approach combines the critical path method and Monte Carlo simulation technique in an effort to quantify construction and market risks for informed decision making. Furthermore, some issues related to the proposed methodology also have been discussed. These issues include (1) factors in determining a reasonable rate of return to the concessionaire’s equity investment; (2) advantages and disadvantages of rate of return regulation; (3) concession period as a tender evaluation criterion; (4) efficiency check of the concessionaire’s cost performance; (5) workable pricing mechanism; and (6) a practical approach to establishing statistical construction cost/duration distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study describing the application of conflict analysis to a public engagement program of urban planning in Hong Kong is presented in this paper. The technique of conflict analysis is used to investigate the possible conflicts and alliance between interest groups in order to avoid opinion domination by those groups that generate the loudest noise in the process of urban planning. The case study shows that this application helps collect public opinions more accurately that can represent the public interest in the selection of the best development and design scheme for the territory, which would not be corrupted by the “dominating opinions.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current method of steel bar soil nail construction is both labor intensive as well as expensive and many engineers are considering the use of new soil nail materials. In the present pilot test, an innovative soil nail is constructed by light weight high strength glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) pipe with the Tube a’ Manchette grouting technique. It is found that this new soil nail system can be handled easily on sites with difficult access. Extensive laboratory as well as field tests were carried out on the GFRP pipe nails and the grouted soil mass and numerical modeling of a field test was performed. The installation of the GFRP pipe, laboratory, and field test results that were carried out in Hong Kong and Korea are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, it has been observed that partnering has been ineffectively implemented in the public sector of Hong Kong. Contributing factors to this lack of success are nature and the large size of bureaucratic organizations and commercial pressure compromising the partnering attitude. The Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited (MTRCL), one of the prominent pioneers in adopting project partnering in the infrastructure sector of Hong Kong since 1999, however, implemented the partnering principle with significant success. This paper, based on a recently completed research project funded by the Construction Industry Institute Hong Kong in late 2004 and a followup in-depth interview meeting with senior executives of MTRCL in early June 2005, analyzes the rationale behind the successful development of partnering culture in the infrastructure sector of Hong Kong through a case study—the Tseung Kwan O Railway Extension (TKE) Contract 654—platform screen doors. The project comprises the supply and installation of platform screen doors along the whole MTRCL’s TKE with five stations. This project was analyzed by means of the project documentation and face-to-face interviews with the project representatives, comparisons with another five partnering case studies, and a followup in-depth interview meeting with another two senior executives of MTRCL. After the analysis, it was found that the implementation of partnering together with an incentive agreement (IA), a kind of target cost (TC) contract, underpinned the partnering success of this project. Therefore, it is recommended that partnering together with TC contracts, such as IA, greatly assists in the achievement of construction excellence, and can provide a workable model for enhancing overall project performance in electrical and mechanical projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A group decision support system (GDSS) is an interactive computer-based information system that combines the capabilities of communication technologies, database technologies, computer technologies, and decision technologies to support the identification, analysis, formulation, evaluation, and solution of semistructured or unstructured problems by a group in a user-friendly computing environment. As there is a strong demand for improvements to the practice of value management (VM), research has been conducted to design a GDSS prototype system, named the interactive value management system (IVMS), to explore its potential application in VM workshops and to investigate the effect of the application. The paper begins with an introduction to the problems of implementing VM in the Hong Kong construction industry and then proceeds to an illustration of the features of the proposed system, which has been developed in the research. Two validation studies designed to test the support of the proposed system are described and the results discussed. Findings from this research indicate that IVMS is supportive in overcoming the problems and difficulties in VM workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yuen Long Bypass Floodway (YLBF) was designed to collect flows from the Sham Chung River (SCR) and the San Hui Nullah (SHN) and to serve as a diversion channel of the Yuen Long Main Nullah (YLMN). Under a 200-year return period design condition, the floodway was designed (1) to divert a flow of approximately 38 m3/s from the supercritical YLMN flow and (2) to convey a total combined flow of 278 m3/s to downstream within acceptable flood levels. The success of the design depends critically on complicated junction flow interactions that cannot be resolved by 1D unsteady flow models. These features include the supercritical-subcritical flow transition at the San Hui-Floodway (SHN-YLBF) junction and the diversion of part of the supercritical flow from the Main Nullah (YLMN). A laboratory Froude scale physical model was constructed to study water stages and flow characteristics in the floodway and to investigate optimal design arrangements at channel junctions and transitions. This paper summarizes the main features of the unique river junction network, in particular the use of the hydraulic jet principle at the SHN-YLBF junction to lower flood levels. In addition, a numerical flow model is employed to study flow details at the river junctions. The model is based on the general 2D shallow water equations in strong conservation form. The equations are discretized using the total variation diminishing finite-volume method which captures the discontinuity in hydraulic jumps. The numerical model predictions are well supported by the laboratory data, and the theoretical and experimental results offer useful insights for the design of urban flood control schemes under tight space constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the quantitative decision-making technique, the analytical hierarchy process, to derive prioritized scales for (1) the constructability factors; and (2) the relative contribution of common construction systems in a building superstructure comprising structural frames, slabs, envelopes, roof, and internal walls toward constructability. The identified constructability factors show that to enhance constructability design requirements should be easily visualized and coordinated by site staff, while designs should allow economic use of contractors’ resources and enable contractors to develop and adopt alternative construction details. The precast method is rated as the most constructible construction method, indicating its better performance in facilitating efficient and safe construction in the busy urban environment in Hong Kong. However, the methodology adopted in this study should be of international interest, especially for those desirous of improving constructability of designs with different contextual backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A soil reinforcement system using the combination of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) pipe and pressure grouting has been developed by a Korean company. The system is being adopted as slope stabilization measures in Hong Kong. Individual GFRP pipes were designed and installed as soil nails with the exception that two-stage pressure grouting was applied instead of gravity grouting. A full-scale field evaluation on constructability and in situ performance of the system was performed in Hong Kong. The performance of the constructed nails was evaluated by pullout tests. The construction procedure, site adaptations of the Korean product made in Hong Kong, field test procedure, and performance of the constructed soil nails are reported in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adversarial nature of the construction industry contributes to the germination and manifestation of construction disputes. Negotiation between the disputants is most often the first attempt in getting disputes resolved. During negotiation, personality characteristics of the disputants affect their behavior and thus the outcomes. Understanding the negotiating behaviors and negotiation outcomes is therefore of both academic and practical value. This paper reports such a study conducted with construction professionals in Hong Kong. The Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II was used to measure the negotiating styles of construction professionals. Taxonomies of negotiation outcomes were developed through a principal component factor analysis. Three functional and four dysfunctional negotiation outcomes were identified. Based on these results, the relationships between the negotiating styles and negotiation outcomes were examined by the use of the multiple regression analyses. The findings suggested that the use of obliging, dominating, and avoiding styles are less influential in achieving functional negotiation outcomes. However, integrating negotiating styles is found to be useful to achieve functional outcomes and the use of comprising styles is a practical approach in resolving dispute. These findings are therefore supportive of the notion of the contingent use of negotiating styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, the demand for Hong Kong’s container handling facilities has been increasing due to the robust economic growth in South China. As more and more vessels call on Hong Kong’s container terminals, the vessels moving in the basin surrounded by the container terminals will have a bigger chance of interfering with one another, due to the need to comply with navigation safety requirements. The interference often necessitates the vessels to stop occasionally while moving along their navigation paths in order to avoid potential collisions. This paper develops a simulation model for studying the impact of the vessel-traffic interference in Hong Kong’s terminal basin on its container terminals’ capacities. Major navigation safety requirements and terminal operational characteristics are considered in the model. The model’s simulation results show that the delays due to the vessel-traffic interference lead to a considerable reduction in Hong Kong container terminals’ capacities. This model can assist the container terminals in estimating the benefits of coordinating vessel movements in the terminal basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of deterioration on the reliability of slopes of various service periods has seldom been considered explicitly in the current reliability approach in slope engineering. Constant annual failure probabilities, that are commonly used in practice to evaluate reliability of a slope over a given expected service period, may not be capable of capturing the deteriorating characteristics of slopes. This paper presents a procedure to model probabilistically the deteriorating effect on the failure probability with time. Past performance of geotechnical systems of similar nature is systematically analyzed to evaluate the failure probabilities for systems of different ages and for different expected service periods. The method was applied to the stability performance of soil cut slopes in Hong Kong. Through this exercise, the reliability of slopes of different ages for different future service periods can be reasonably estimated. As such, a planner can benchmark a design standard and plan a slope improvement program in a more effective and defensible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing awareness of environmental impacts from construction wastes has led to the development of waste management as an important function of construction project management. Various approaches for managing construction wastes have been developed in the existing research works and practices, and these works can be grouped largely into three areas: waste classification, waste management strategies (avoiding waste, reducing waste, reusing waste, and recycling waste), and waste disposal technologies. Nevertheless, these approaches give less attention to the management of the waste handling process on construction sites. In fact, construction wastes pass through a number of processes from generation to final disposal, and proper flow of these processes can improve waste management effectiveness. This paper examines the waste handling process during construction through mapping six cases selected in Hong Kong construction, with the assistance of the free-flow mapping presentation technique. The examination leads to developing a waste management mapping model (WMMM), which incorporates the good operations embodied in the existing practices. The WMMM provides an alterative tool assisting in planning waste management procedures on construction sites. It can serve as a vehicle for comparing the waste management practices between construction sites, thus both good practices and weak areas can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge, and students may adopt different learning approaches to achieving their learning goals. While educationalists can draw up what they believe is a good construction curriculum for students, students’ learning would depend on their own learning approaches and attitudes. Acknowledging a lack of research on the learning attitudes of construction students, a matrix framework of learning approaches (MFLA) based on the relationships between three learning motives and three learning strategies is proposed in this paper. The MFLA enabled a major empirical survey to be carried out in Hong Kong to examine the learning characteristics of construction students. A questionnaire based on Biggs’s study process questionnaire was distributed to five groups of construction-related students in three universities in Hong Kong. The results of the survey indicate that seven of the nine hypothetical learning approaches exist in construction education in Hong Kong. The assortment of learning approaches used varied across the five student groups. As a result, different teaching and learning factors should be adopted by educators of construction students to meet the distinctive characteristics of students in various universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is a very competitive high-risk business. Many problems, such as little cooperation, lack of trust, and ineffective communication resulting in adversarial relationships between contracting parties, are facing the construction industry. Partnering is perhaps one of the most innovative developments in delivering a project efficiently and reducing construction disputes. It provides a sound basis for a “win-win” climate and synergistic teamwork. Project partnering in the Hong Kong construction industry has gained in popularity since 1994. A number of potential factors contributing to partnering success have emerged and deserve further study. This paper presents a review of the development of the partnering concept in general and identifies critical success factors for partnering projects from the Hong Kong perspective in particular. Through a postal questionnaire survey geared toward project participants with hands-on partnering experience, the opinions of various parties—clients, consultants, and contractors were sought and evaluated in relation to partnering success factors. The relationship between the perception of partnering success and a set of success factors hypothesized in the study was derived using factor analysis and multiple regression. The results indicated that certain requirements must be met for partnering to succeed. In particular, the establishment and communication of a conflict resolution strategy, a willingness to share resources among project participants, a clear definition of responsibilities, a commitment to a win-win attitude, and regular monitoring of partnering process were believed to be the significant underlying factors for partnering success. Such an identification of success factors could well formulate effective strategies for minimizing construction conflicts and improving project performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the topic of data collection as appropriate for the productivity study of ready mixed concrete placing methods. Classification and description of various concrete placing methods are given. The normally available quality control (QC) records for 462 concrete pours from five ongoing Hong Kong building construction projects were captured into a database, representing a total of 6,833 truckmixer trips out of two major concrete plants in Hong Kong. By querying the database, the placing rates for particular placing methods were established, and validated by comparison with existing industry benchmarks. One promising observation is that in general the Hong Kong construction sites may now be more efficient in processing truckmixers than they were a decade ago. The normal concreting QC records, routinely accumulated on site in a mandatory and standardized fashion, include the timing and quantity data as needed because of the time-sensitive nature of freshly mixed concrete. Data of this type is a better and more convenient alternative to collection by direct observation and measurement. The concreting placing rates for the various placing methods derived from the database are found to be potentially of direct value for assisting concrete plant and site managers in estimating the progress of work and attaining better coordination in concrete supply and placing between concrete suppliers and site contractors. They also serve as performance yardsticks for benchmarking the state of the Hong Kong concreting industry as time goes by and indeed, and most usefully, for comparison with other large cities if similar records are obtained for processing from those cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a new concept for balancing car ownership from both user demand and road network supply conditions. On the demand side, territory-wide and zonal car ownership is first estimated by an aggregate and a disaggregate car ownership models, respectively. A simulated probability distribution of the territory-wide car ownership is also established to assess the reliability of the estimated car ownership. From the road network supply conditions, the maximum number of cars by zone is determined in view of the capacity of the road network and the number of available parking spaces by a bilevel programming model. The proposed bilevel programming model is aimed at examining whether existing road network supply conditions are capable for accommodating future zonal car ownership growth. A case study in a Hong Kong urban area is presented to integrate the results of user demand and network supply conditions to obtain the balance of territory-wide car ownership. The balanced car ownership is found to be the most efficient scenario in terms of total network travel time and utilization of network facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the success factors for the implementation of ISO9000 in the Hong Kong construction industry. The critical factors for construction contractors to successfully implement ISO9000 were identified. An analytic hierarchy process model was then developed to determine the relative importance among those factors. The findings showed that the top management commitment is the most critical factor for the successful ISO9000 implementation, whilst the common goal, teamworking, education and training, and the cultural changes are also the important factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methodology of discrete-event simulation provides a promising alternative solution to designing and analyzing dynamic, complicated, and interactive construction systems. In this paper, an attempt is made to extend the previous work of simplifying construction simulation by delving into the fundamental approaches for discrete-event simulation. A new simplified discrete-event simulation approach (SDESA) is presented through extracting the constructive features from the existing event/activity-based simulation methods; both the algorithm and the model structure of simulation are streamlined such that simulating construction systems is made as easy as applying the critical path method (CPM). Two applications based on real road construction projects in Hong Kong serve as case studies to illustrate the methodology of simulation modeling with SDESA and reveal the simplicity and effectiveness of SDESA in modeling complex construction systems and achieving the preset objectives of such modeling. They are a granular base-course construction system featuring both cyclic and linear processes and an asphalt paving construction system with complicated technological/logical constraints. As a general-purpose method for construction planning, SDESA enables practitioners to deal with what the CPM-based network analysis method fails to solve by offering discrete-event simulation capabilities. Furthermore, the SDESA can potentially be adapted to special-purpose simulation tools to tackle large and complicated construction systems of practical size that have yet to find convenient solutions with existing simulation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong, the annual traffic census report is published in the middle of the year and used to present the results of traffic volume recorded at the automatic traffic counter stations. The type of traffic volume data being widely used is the annual average daily traffic (AADT), which is estimated on the basis of the daily flows by 12 months in the whole surveyed year. In this paper, time series, neural network, nonparametric regression, and Gaussian maximum likelihood (GML) methods were adapted to develop four models for short-term prediction of the daily traffic flows by day of week and by month, as well as the AADT for the whole current year. The historical data (1994–1998) and available current-year data for 1999 partial daily flows are the input data used for model development. The results of the four models were compared with the real data for validation. The daily flows estimated by the four models were used to calculate the AADT for the current year of 1999. Based on the comparison results, the GML model appears to be the most promising and robust of these four models for extensive applications to provide the short-term traffic forecasting database for the whole territory of Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the Lagrangian finite element method is formulated along with the Bingham model for simulating natural transient slurry flows. The numerical model thus developed is validated with available experimental results. As well, a back-analysis of the dynamic behavior of the 1997 Lai Ping Road landslide in Hong Kong is conducted. Correlating well with field observations, the modeling results are satisfactory in terms of predicting the hazard areas of the debris trail during runout and the debris distribution on deposition fan. The present method is also able to demonstrate the multidirectional sliding features of natural slurry flows. It is noteworthy that the availability of high quality data on site topography is crucial for modeling such a gravity-driven flow. A knowledge of dynamic runout information is useful in estimating landslide mobility, potential hazard areas, and debris impact loads, and in evaluating the effectiveness of counter measures in the debris released area, in relation to downslope property development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to investigate whether a relationship exists between development conditions in government land leases and housing supply and to what extent these development conditions affect Hong Kong’s supply of private residential apartments. The Hong Kong government conducts regular studies on local housing demand, such as its 1996 study of housing demand model and study on housing demand. Thus, this paper will focus mainly on examining the supply side of private housing in Hong Kong by giving an overview of Hong Kong’s housing supply situation and, in order to understand Hong Kong’s land tenure system, a brief background review of the establishment of Hong Kong’s leasehold tenure system, as well as a global synopsis of the literature relating to the effects of the leasehold land tenure system, governmental land regulation, development/land use control, and restricted land supply on the housing market. A sample of leases will be randomly chosen to perform an in-depth analysis of the lease conditions to determine commonly specified development conditions in government leases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road transport networks that exist within Eastern Asia are experiencing ever-increasing levels of demand due to rapid population growth within the region. This is especially so for interregional travel because of a continuous dispersion of the population as it expands. Within Hong Kong, new transport infrastructure is required to cater to the demands emerging from growth and decentralization of the population distribution. Initiatives such as park-and-ride schemes can assist transport networks to operate more efficiently and are worthy of assessment as a demand management technique for inclusion in the future transit system. As a result of a comprehensive survey conducted on a trial park-and-ride facility in Hong Kong, lessons have been learned for the implementation of future schemes within Hong Kong and Eastern Asia. This paper provides a description of the data assembled as a result of the survey, and it identifies reasons and factors contributing to the success of the park-and-ride facility in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the parking demand models for private cars and goods vehicles developed as part of a parking demand study that was completed in Hong Kong in 1995. In the model, it is assumed that there is a linear and additive demand function relating land-use variables in a zone (such as jobs, schools, or households) with parking demand. Further, the parking activity associated with each land-use variable is assumed to have a unique parking accumulation profile. Surveys were conducted to determine these profiles. A unitgraph, which is defined as the parking accumulation profile per parking activity, was constructed for each land-use variable. Given the land-use variables, the parking demand function, and the unitgraphs, the total parking accumulation profile in each zone is determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]