[:zh]Legislators to lay down law on bridge papers delay[:]

[:zh]

Legislators will follow up on reports that the main contractor of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge failed to

submit 28 percent of the required documents – more than 10,000 forms – on time in July.

The Highways Department said the documents were submitted in August, and did not involve safety issues.

The documents are request for inspection and survey checks forms, which earlier took center stage in the Sha

Tin to Central Link controversy as main contractor Leighton failed to submit some forms on tunnels.

The department said in July it was notified by the bridge's engineering consultant, Ove Arup & Partners Hong

Kong, that the contractor, China State Construction Engineering, failed to submit about 10,000 RISC forms

involving a section of road between Scenic Hill and the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities.

Construction of the Hong Kong Link Road began in March 2012, but some forms were not submitted until two years

after work was completed, according to Ove Arup.

The department said it requested the forms immediately and received them in August.

It said an independent consultant trawled all the forms submitted and found no quality issues or forgeries.

Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said a two-year delay in submitting the documents is unacceptable. She found it

worrying the Highways Department allowed the contractor to submit such a large number so late.

Architectural, surveying, planning and landscape sector lawmaker Tony Tse Wai-chuen said a series of issues

have reflected problems in the supervision of infrastructure projects, and the government needs to re-examine

how this issue should be handled.

Tse said the government should first explain the cause of the missing documents and what went wrong before it

decides on what punishment to impose.

Charlotte Luo

[:]