Fresh
revelations |
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It soon came to light that some
of the site staff were aware of construction irregularities
during the seven months when Hui Hon was in charge of
the work. The site foreman employed by Hui Hon from mid
March to July 1998 told an ICAC investigator that, because
the project was progressing so slowly, he had been instructed
to drive the temporary casings to a depth of only 20 m
to 30 m below ground, rather than to founding level. He
also said that he knew that two ex-directors
of Hui Hon
had ordered the workers to use Super Mud to stabilize
the walls of excavated shafts without installing temporary
casings for support.
The site foreman
also pointed out that in May 1998, a few months after
construction started, two to three lorry loads of concrete
were left over after workers had cast the concrete into
two pile shafts. This was unusual because the volume of
concrete ordered ought to have matched the amount required
to create piles of the prescribed depth. A small amount
of concrete might well be left over after casting was
complete, but such a large excess could mean only one
thing: the pile shafts were shorter than prescribed, and
so could not hold the correctly ordered amount of concrete.
The site foreman went on to say that he was aware of the
various construction problems at Yuen Chau Kok. In an
on-site inspection meeting with the directors
of
Hui Hon, he had raised both the operating problems being
encountered with the Bauer BG 40 rig and the excess concrete
issue. The directors took no action. He stated that the
foreman ,
the site agent and
the assistant engineer
all shared his concerns, but that the management still
insisted on their own preferred way of doing the piling
work.
He carried on voicing his concerns until early July 1998,
when he raised a final alarm with the site agent . This
was once again ignored by the management, so he immediately
resigned and left.
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