The project will comprise of the construction and
operation of an outdoor karting track design to
international standard for kart racing.
The karting track will be
managed by the Project Proponent and oversee by the HKKC. HKKC is a
member of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, as
well as one of the sporting organizations under the subvention of the Leisure
and Cultural Services Department.
The proposed karting
track is for sporting purposes and can only be used by members of the
HKKC. The karting
track will not be opened to the general public for recreational uses. A kart driving licence, issue by the
HKKC, is required for driving the petrol karts and the proposed track will hold
a maximum of 200 visitors with about 20 staffs. No on-site parking facility is provided
at the proposed karting track. To control the number of visitors, a shuttle
bus service would be provided for the visitors. A 45-person bus would run between Tuen Mun Town Centre and the karting track every hour.
The proposed karting
track is for running with petrol karts.
To operate any karting track, the design of
the karting track must satisfy the international
safety standard for kart racing.
The karting track will operate from Monday to
Sunday with operating hours from 09:30 to 19:00. A maximum of
40 karts would be allowed on the track for training or rental run and 34 karts
for match. Each run would not last
more than 30 minutes including kart running time and break time between each
run. The karts to be running on the
track are powered by Rotax Max FR125 2-stroke single
cylinder engines with displacement of 125 c.c. The fuel tank capacity of the kart is
small, i.e., about 3 litres, and re-fuelling will be required once or twice a
day. The re-fuelling will be
undertaken on site within the service area enclosed by chain link fence. A
licence dangerous goods (DG) vehicle would transport the petrol tank to site
for re-fuelling and the karts will be re-fuelled using hand pump. Only limited quantities of petrol, a
standard 18 litre safety petrol tank, will be stored on site during the
daytime. Any unused petrol will be
collected by the DG vehicle after the operating time of the karting
track. Only minor maintenance works
will be conducted on-site, including the use of lubricants, chain oil, and
brake cleaner. If any engine
maintenance works are required, the kart vehicle will be transport to a garage.
The overall track length is about 900m, in a site
of about 1.8 ha. The site is
currently approximately 5 mPD and only very minor
site levelling will be required. No
slope cutting or major site formation is required as part of the construction
and no superstructure will be constructed within the site. The karting track
will be paved using asphaltic concrete and part of
the site that will be used for regular maintenance work will also be paved
using concrete. An existing village
house within the site boundary will be used as an office for the karting track and four units of mobile toilets will be
provided at the site together with thirteen ISO containers to be used as
maintenance and storage area for the petrol karts. The proposed site layout plan is shown
in Figure
3.1.
A contractor
will be commissioned by the Project Proponent to undertake the construction of
the Project. In view that only
minor construction activity is required, the
construction stage is expected to be completed in two months. All the construction activities are
expected to be undertaken during normal working hours (ie
Monday to Saturday, from 07:00 to 19:00 hours). No restricted hour works are
anticipated.
No
other major project was identified to be carried out concurrently in the
vicinity of the proposed Project.
The
impacts associated with the Project are summarised in Table 3.1 and are described in further detailed in the following
sections.
Table 3.1 Potential
Sources of Environmental Impacts
|
Type of Potential Impact |
Construction |
Operation |
Remarks |
|
Noise
generation |
P |
P |
See
Section 5 |
|
Night time
operations |
X |
X |
|
|
Impacts on
ecological resources |
X |
X |
|
|
Landscape
and visual impacts |
P |
P |
See
Section 9 |
|
Gaseous
emissions |
P |
P |
See
Section 4 |
|
Dust |
P |
X |
See
Section 4 |
|
Liquid
effluents |
P |
P |
See
Section 6 |
|
Disposal
of spoil material |
P |
X |
See
Section 7 |
|
Generation
of waste or by-products |
P |
P |
See
Section 7 |
|
Disruption
of water movement or bottom sediment |
X |
X |
|
|
Risk of
accidents which would result in pollution or hazard |
X |
X |
|
|
Endangerment
of cultural heritage resources |
X |
X |
|
|
Traffic generation |
P |
P |
See
Section 4 & 5 |
|
Storage,
handling, transport, or disposal of hazardous materials or wastes |
P |
P |
See
Section 7 & 8 |
|
P = Possible X
= Not expected |
|
|
|
The site
selection exercise has resulted in a location that has avoided impacts to high
ecological value habitats and is located away from residential
developments. No felling of trees
is required during the construction stage.
The footprint of the karting track will also
be screened by the existing vegetation and the natural topography, so the
Project would only be visible from limited viewpoints.
The environmental condition of
the proposed site is currently a flatted wasteland with patches of weed plants found
at the western and northern end. A
village house is located at the south and a DSD outfall chamber at the
north. It is expected that if the
Project will not proceed, the wasteland will be covered by weed plants. However, it should be noted that the
land is likely to be rented out by the land owner for other uses such as open
storage and/or recycling factory if the Project will not proceed.
The alternative assessment (Section 2) concluded that the site in
Lung Kwu Tan is the preferred site both environmentally
as well in terms of operational aspects.
Subsequent sections of this report demonstrate that the Project can be
constructed and operated in an environmentally acceptable manner.