The "magic measuring tape" After the assistant engineer was posted to another construction site, the vacancy was filled by an engineer who had just graduated. He stated that the two ex-directors of Hui Hon and the site agent had told him to have workers shorten the measuring tape that would be used to measure the actual length of the pile. This became known as the "magic measuring tape". One piling worker revealed that this young assistant engineer had asked him to drill the pile to at least 40 m when taking core samples. When the worker reported that the drilling had been impeded by blockages within the pile, the assistant engineer instructed him to tidy up the drill hole and shorten the tape before HD staff measured the length of the pile. The worker said that he could not recollect who actually cut the tape. He did state however that he accompanied the assistant engineer when the HD staff inspected the pile length and that he was the one to lower the tape. At that time, he saw the HD staff read the measurement off the tape and then sign to confirm the total length of the pile.