Hong Kong $33.7b border project pushed back to 2019 as troubled contractor flounders

Leighton has been suspended over construction issues in a separate project.

Bloomberg reports that a multi-billion border crossing project between Hong Kong and Shenzhen initially due to be finished in 2018 will be delayed until the middle of 2019 as its primary contractor, Leighton Contractors (Asia), continues to encounter building-related problems.

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Started in 2013, the $33.7b Liantang-Heung Yuen Wai boundary control point project is located in the northeastern part of New Territories. Around $25b has been set aside for the border crossing but was hit by cost overruns of about $8.7b in 2015, data from South China Morning Post show.

The delay adds to the growing woes of embattled contractor who was earlier barred from tendering for public works for a 15-month period over “construction issues” at a subway station. The suspension was part of a fall-out from an ongoing safety investigation.

“As with other projects procured by the Architectural Services Department, the completion date of the project … would be reviewed and, where necessary, extended according to the contract provisions,” a department spokeswoman told SCMP. ““Based on the recent assessment, the project is expected to be completed in 2019. The cost of delay, if any, will be assessed and recovered in accordance with the contract provisions,” she added.

The checkpoint project comes with a main building, a public transport interchange, a government and public car park, a back-of-house area and a passenger hall block. It is expected to handle about 30,000 passenger trips and 17,850 vehicular trips per day.

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Photo from Planning Department