3. Project Description

3.1 Description of the Site Area

3.1.

3.1.1 The Depot is planned to be constructed on a reclaimed land at Yen Ming Road, which was recently occupied by three site offices and associated storage areas associated with the Civil Engineering and Development Department’s (CEDD) Landslip Prevention and Mitigation works contracts (just returned).

3.1.2 Existing environment in the study area comprises a combination of urban residential, institutional and commercial areas in South West Kowloon in the Yau Tsim Mong District. According to the latest South West Kowloon Outline Zoning Plan (OZP) No. S/K20/28, the Site is zoned as “Government, Institution and Community (G/IC)” and is designated as “Government” and “Cable / Drainage / WSD /MTRC Reserve” on the draft South West Kowloon (Central Section) Outline Development Plan (ODP) No. D/K20B/D.

3.1.3 As shown in the location plan of Figure 1-1, the Project site is adjacent to CLP Tai Kok Tsui Substation and Cheung Sha Wan Wholesale Food and Fish Markets, and is bounded by Yen Ming Street, Yen Chow Street West, Lin Cheung Road and Hoi Fan Road. The adjacent developments are identified and summarised as follows:

· To the south: Yuen Fat Building, container storage and berthing point, open sea, etc

· To the east: CLP Tak Kok Tsui Substation, Sir Ellis Kadoorie Secondary School, Tai Kok Tsui Catholic Primary School, etc

· To the north: Nam Cheong Station, Nam Cheong Estate, Fu Cheong Estate, Nam Cheong Park, etc

· To the west: Cheung Sha Wan Wholesales Fish and Food Markets, etc

3.1.4 The historical land use activities in chronological order are summarised as follows:

· Before 1991: Sea;

· 1992: Reclamation;

· 1993 to 2000: Cargo handling and storage of containers, container vehicle and trailers but excluding dangerous goods, under short term tenancy;

· 2000 to 2004 : Cargo handling and storage of containers, container vehicle and trailers but excluding dangerous goods / fee-paying public carpark, under short term tenancy;

· 2004 to 2009: Fee-paying public carpark, under short term tenancy; and

· 2010 to 2013: Site offices and associated storage for public projects (just returned).

3.2 Design of the Depot

3.2.1 Based on the preferred option as discussed in Section 2.5, the proposed offices-cum-vehicle depot building will be constructed in the form of a five-storey building occupying a site area of approximately 8,278m². The lowest three floors will provide vehicle maintenance facilities, vehicle washing facilities for carrying out general vehicle repair and washing activities as well as providing parking spaces for the FEHD vehicle fleet of West Kowloon region. Offices and stores will be mainly located on the higher floors, with green roof design providing substantial landscape features.

3.2.2 The layout plans from ground floor to roof of the Depot are presented in Figure 3-1. The offices-cum-depot would mainly include the following:

· Parking spaces (about 140 nos.);

· Covered vehicle maintenance workshop including 3 vehicle repair bays;

· Covered vehicle washing facilities including an automatic vehicle washing bay and 2 manual vehicle washing bays;

· Storage rooms;

· Offices;

· Special ancillary facilities, including underground waste lubrication oil tank; underground oil interceptor; scrap metal yard; dangerous goods (DGs) store;

· Associated plant rooms; and

· Toilets and shower rooms.

3.2.3 There will be storerooms for storage of lubrication / hydraulic oil and spare parts as well as cleansing equipments and disinfectant fluid. There will be a DG store for the storage such as gas, paint, solvent and diesel lubrication oil and another for lime and pesticides.

3.2.4 Air compressors for providing power for driving pneumatic tools for facilitating vehicle maintenance activities will be housed in a compressor room to isolate all noise generated. The Depot will also be equipped with a roller brake tester and tyre changers for the repair and maintenance needs. Furthermore, vehicle washing facilities will be provided in the Depot.

3.2.5 Vehicles not necessarily require washing or repairing after daily operation will be parked at the carpark areas. Those vehicles require washing or repairing will be first driven directly to the manual / automatic washing bay / facility on the ground floor for cleaning. Based on the needs, those vehicles will then be driven to parking areas or repair bay at the ground floor for repairing or driven out for operation.

3.2.6 The vehicles move in and out of the Depot only when operation needs, and the movement of vehicles within the Depot will be limited. The total estimated daily numbers of vehicles detained in the Depot was determined to be of 140 in maximum (which equal to the parking spaces for vehicles) and the vehicles comprise refuse collection vehicles, street washing vehicles, vans, light buses and light trucks / lorries, etc.

3.2.7 The average daily in and out traffic volumes would be about 320. The concurrent numbers of vehicles for washing and repairing in the Depot are expected to be 3 and 3 respectively, with a total number of 6, which is below 5% of the 140 vehicles.

3.2.8 Generally, major vehicle repairing activities will be taken place at the Depot from 7:00am to 7:00pm on 7-day per week basis, whilst offices will be in operation mainly during normal office hours.

3.3 Construction Methodology

3.3.1 Since the Site is relatively flat, no major site formation works will be required. Upon site clearance, foundation work would be constructed by piling. Temporary excavation and lateral support work is required to be installed to avoid causing any excessive settlement at the external ground or pedestrian pavement. Excavation will be carried out by formation of temporary cut slope and installation of sheet pile with struts.

3.3.2 Pre-boring works might be required for installation of sheet piles and driven piles for overcoming the underground obstruction, such as boulders. Localized dewatering may be required for lowering of groundwater in the area around the excavation for pile cap construction. Conventional bottom-up reinforced concrete construction will be adopted for the superstructure construction with beam-slab. The floor consists of suspended beam and slabs which are supported by columns and structural walls. Formwork and temporary support for the beam and slab construction will be installed.

3.4 Project Implementation Programme

3.4.1 Appendix 3-1 shows the preliminary construction programme of the Project, based on which this EIA was carried out. The design of the Depot is on-going during the preparation of this EIA Report. The construction works are planned to be commenced in late 2014 and to be completed in late 2016 / early 2017, upon which mobilisation and installation of the equipment will be carried out. The new building will then be handed over to FEHD for operation.

3.5 Concurrent Projects

3.5.1 There are several concurrent projects in the vicinity of the Site, as summarised in Table 3-1. At this stage, only those concurrent projects available with implementation programmes would be considered as concurrent projects for cumulative environmental impacts. Potential cumulative impacts of various environmental aspects, if any, from the planned major concurrent projects, are assessed in the individual sections of this EIA study.

Table 3-1 List of Potential Concurrent Projects

Concurrent Projects	Potential Cumulative Impacts
Concurrent Projects	Construction Phase	Operation Phase
Planned ffootbridge across the junction of Sham Mong Road/Tonkin Street West by CEDD (construction works are scheduled to commence in late 2014 and to complete in 2018)	X	X
Planned Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link along Sham Mong Road (several works area within our study area are under construction in between our project implementation programme)	✓	X
Nam Cheong Station Property Development (construction has been commenced currently and to complete from 2017 to 2019 by phases)	✓	X

3.6 Identification of Key Environmental Issues

3.6.1 The key environmental issues identified during the construction and operation phases include the followings:

During Construction Phase

· Potential noise impacts arising from the construction works activities;

· Potential dust impacts arising from the construction works activities;

· Potential water quality and sewerage impacts arising from the construction works

· activities and workforce;

· Potential waste management implications arising from the construction works

· activities; and

· Potential landscape and visual impacts arising from the construction works

· activities; and

· Potential cumulative environmental impacts through interaction or in combination with other existing, committed and planned concurrent Projects.

During Operation Phase

· Potential fixed noise impacts arising from operational plant and repairing activities in the Depot;

· Potential vehicular emission and pollutant emission impacts arising from the vehicle repairing and maintenance activities (including small scale and infrequent touch-up painting and welding activities) in the Depot and road carriage ways in the vicinity of the Depot;

· Potential odour nuisance arising from refuse collection vehicle washing in the Depot;

· Potential sewerage impacts arising from the workforce in the Depot;

· Potential waste management implications and land contamination arising from the vehicle repairing and maintenance activities;

· Potential landscape and visual impacts arising from the operation of the Depot; and

· Potential cumulative environmental impacts of the Project and associated works, through interaction or in combination with other existing, committed and planned Projects in their vicinity, and that those impacts, also cumulative odour impact from Cheung Sha Wan Whole Fish Market.

3.7 Environmental Benefits

3.7.1 The Project is to reprovision the existing Sai Yee Street Vehicle Depot by another site, in order to return the land at Sai Yee Street to Lands Department. A plan is noted proposing to redevelop the site including commercial development above a public transport interchange (PTI), as well as provision of public open space and preservation of the existing mature trees at the site.

3.7.2 As such, the heavy traffic flows and traffic jam suffered currently at Sai Yee Street would be re-organised and resolved, which would relieve air quality in local extent from traffic emissions.

3.7.3 Furthermore, as mentioned above, public open space is to be developed, where landscaping areas would be enhanced and thus favouring the landscape and visual quality in the area.

3.7.4 Moreover, the existing depot was built and has been operating for a long period of time. Limited comprehensive environmental measures could be incorporated into the design of the existing depot due to technical and spatial constraints. This might pose certain concerns from the neighbour (e.g. noise and odorous emission during vehicle repairing works). With the Project to reprovision the existing depot, the environmental nuisance to the surrounding at Sai Yee Street site will be totally eliminated. Meanwhile, with the adequately designed environmental protection measures, as discussed in Chapter 2 and further in following chapters, to be incorporated to the facilities as needed, particularly at the odorous areas like washing bays and workshops to be arranged at enclosed building envelop with sufficient negative ventilation and odour removal equipment prior discharging the vent gas where the vent location and orientation also examined, such nuisance will not be relocated / transferred to the proposed new site.

3.7.5 In addition, extensive greening measures (pedestrian and roof levels, as well as facades) would be incorporated into the new Depot, which in turns could be beneficial to landscaping and visual quality of the , comparing with the CEDD’s site offices and associated storage areas (just returned), and thus enhance the living quality of the environment.

3.8 Public Concerns

3.8.1 During the course of planning and development of the Project, local public has been communicated and liaised. In particular, meetings / forums were held to consult the local residents, allowing them to express views and concerns.

3.8.2 Amongst different issues raised from the local residents, environmental concerns were also expressed, such as potential smelling issues from the activities, road vehicular noise and air emissions, as well as the selection of traffic routing of the future vehicle fleets.

3.8.3 Once the said concerns were received and well noted, the Project Team has examined various improvements and design enhancements for the Project to resolve the local’s comments, for example provision of odour removal equipment and ventilation system, and traffic re-routing of vehicle fleet away from concerned road lanes and receivers, in order to minimise nuisance to the locals.

3.8.4 Furthermore, the associated environmental nuisances have been adequately assessed in the following chapters of the report to address public concerns.