Site engineer admits role in Tung Chung Station piling scam
2000-3-22
A site engineer admitted at District Court today (Wednesday) that he had conspired with two colleagues to construct substandard bored piles at Tung Chung Station Development Package II Site 4 (the project), and submit false piling records to defraud the B uildings Department.
The court heard that coring tests performed by independent consultants at the private residential project which comprised seven blocks of buildings had revealed that amongst the 76 bored piles constructed, 66 were shortened by 0.54 metres to about 19 metr es.
Yu Chun-man, 29, site engineer of I-P Foundations Ltd. (I-P Foundations), pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with Li Che-hing, Ko Chi-kwong and others to defraud the Buildings Department and the project developer Tung Chung Station Development Comp any Limited (the project developer), by dishonestly :
- not constructing the bored piles of the project in accordance with the site plan approved by the Buildings Department;
- falsely representing that the bored piles were constructed in accordance with the approved plan; and
- causing the developer to pay for work that had not been carried out in accordance with the approved site plan.
The offence took place between July 1997 and March 1998.
Li, 51, and Ko, 43, were respectively former project manager and site agent of I-P Foundations. They earlier pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge and their case would be heard next month.
Judge Richard Davies today adjourned sentencing Yu pending the trial of the two co-defendants. Yu was remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department.
The court heard that I-P Foundations was the main contractor of the foundation work for blocks H1 to H4 of the project. The piling works for blocks H1, H3 and H4 was sub-contracted to Sunley Engineering & Construction Company Limited.
In July 1997, the senior management of I-P Foundations told Li and Ko that because of inadequate machinery, tight construction schedule and delay due to bad weather, bored piles for blocks H1 to H4 needed to be constructed shorter than the prescribed dept hs.
Li and Ko then instructed Yu, other foremen and workers to carry out the scheme through dishonest means.
Between July 1997 and April 1998, Yu had, on at least 10 occasions, cut short the measuring tapes supplied to Maunsell Consultants Asia Limited (Maunsell) for measuring the bored hole depths. Maunsell was the consultant firm which supervised the foundati on work.
Yu also instructed some drivers and workers to dispose of large amount of excessive concrete. He also requested some staff of the concrete company to provide false records on the volume of concrete used for constructing the bored piles.
Upon instructions from Li, Ko and Yu also ordered foremen and workers to cut short steel cages so that they could be fitted into the shortened pile holes.
The court was also told that in order to cover up the scheme, Yu had presented fake core samples for inspection by Maunsell.
Yu also submitted relevant reports to Maunsell and the Buildings Department, falsely representing that the bored piles for blocks H1 to H4 had been constructed according to the prescribed depths.
In January 1999, Maunsell ordered a re-examination of core samples from blocks H1 to H4, following the discovery of cracks on block H5.
Subsequent coring tests revealed that 66 out of the 76 bored piles from blocks H1 to H4 were shorter by 0.54 metres to about 19 metres, while 14 of them were constructed on foundation layer of which the rock quality was weaker than the required standard.
The project developer had paid I-P Foundations approximately $42 million for carrying out the foundation work.
The prosecution was today represented by John Marray on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Simon Ho.
The court heard that coring tests performed by independent consultants at the private residential project which comprised seven blocks of buildings had revealed that amongst the 76 bored piles constructed, 66 were shortened by 0.54 metres to about 19 metr es.
Yu Chun-man, 29, site engineer of I-P Foundations Ltd. (I-P Foundations), pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with Li Che-hing, Ko Chi-kwong and others to defraud the Buildings Department and the project developer Tung Chung Station Development Comp any Limited (the project developer), by dishonestly :
- not constructing the bored piles of the project in accordance with the site plan approved by the Buildings Department;
- falsely representing that the bored piles were constructed in accordance with the approved plan; and
- causing the developer to pay for work that had not been carried out in accordance with the approved site plan.
The offence took place between July 1997 and March 1998.
Li, 51, and Ko, 43, were respectively former project manager and site agent of I-P Foundations. They earlier pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge and their case would be heard next month.
Judge Richard Davies today adjourned sentencing Yu pending the trial of the two co-defendants. Yu was remanded in the custody of the Correctional Services Department.
The court heard that I-P Foundations was the main contractor of the foundation work for blocks H1 to H4 of the project. The piling works for blocks H1, H3 and H4 was sub-contracted to Sunley Engineering & Construction Company Limited.
In July 1997, the senior management of I-P Foundations told Li and Ko that because of inadequate machinery, tight construction schedule and delay due to bad weather, bored piles for blocks H1 to H4 needed to be constructed shorter than the prescribed dept hs.
Li and Ko then instructed Yu, other foremen and workers to carry out the scheme through dishonest means.
Between July 1997 and April 1998, Yu had, on at least 10 occasions, cut short the measuring tapes supplied to Maunsell Consultants Asia Limited (Maunsell) for measuring the bored hole depths. Maunsell was the consultant firm which supervised the foundati on work.
Yu also instructed some drivers and workers to dispose of large amount of excessive concrete. He also requested some staff of the concrete company to provide false records on the volume of concrete used for constructing the bored piles.
Upon instructions from Li, Ko and Yu also ordered foremen and workers to cut short steel cages so that they could be fitted into the shortened pile holes.
The court was also told that in order to cover up the scheme, Yu had presented fake core samples for inspection by Maunsell.
Yu also submitted relevant reports to Maunsell and the Buildings Department, falsely representing that the bored piles for blocks H1 to H4 had been constructed according to the prescribed depths.
In January 1999, Maunsell ordered a re-examination of core samples from blocks H1 to H4, following the discovery of cracks on block H5.
Subsequent coring tests revealed that 66 out of the 76 bored piles from blocks H1 to H4 were shorter by 0.54 metres to about 19 metres, while 14 of them were constructed on foundation layer of which the rock quality was weaker than the required standard.
The project developer had paid I-P Foundations approximately $42 million for carrying out the foundation work.
The prosecution was today represented by John Marray on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Simon Ho.