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West Island metro line

Minimising impacts for an underground railway in one of the world’s most densely populated areas

Businesses involved

Facts

2.2km

of tunnels

80%

of spoil for re-use

Keeping the noise down

During 2010, we won three major contracts from Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR) – including the largest in its history.

Together, they mean that our Hong Kong-based joint venture, Gammon, is building the majority of the island's West Island Line, including all three new stations and 2.2km of its 3km tunnels.

We're using innovative solutions and our engineering and construction expertise to minimise impacts on traffic, the environment and the local community.

Why choose us? A key reason was our commitment to minimise impacts as we carve out an underground railway in one of the world's most densely populated areas. Our innovative approach includes:

  • Elaborate shielding and electrically driven equipment rather than diesel engines which set new standards in noise and dust suppression
  • Developing a self-compacting concrete to use in the above-ground structures, which results in less noise
  • 80% of tunnelling spoil travelling by conveyor belt to barges for re-use (mainly on reclamation projects within Hong Kong), so minimising the impact on traffic and the environment
  • Underground crushers to feed the conveyors, further reducing noise and dust

On the largest contract, we have agreed with MTR to share the benefits of cost savings and the cost of any overruns, using a target-cost contract form.

Together, the three contracts are worth over £500m – making the West Island Line the largest civil infrastructure project Gammon has ever worked on. In the past decade, Gammon has built more underground stations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand than anyone.

Brian Gowran

Gammon Project Director for the Kennedy Town Station and Overrun Tunnel project

"Gammon was not awarded this project on price; it was because the customer liked our proposed methods and our track record with similar projects."