Leighton To Blame For Missing Documents: MTRC

The MTR Corporation has blamed its contractor Leighton for a new set of construction problems at its Hung Hom station, saying it’s ‘extremely disappointed’ in the company and reserves the right to take legal action.

Speaking to the media after the government revealed that as much as 40 percent of key construction documents, known as ‘Request for Inspection and Survey Checks forms’ (RISC) have gone missing, the railway firm’s CEO Lincoln Leong placed the blame squarely on the contractor.

“The records, the so-called RISC forms should originate firstly from Leighton. We have been asking them and chasing them for as many of the RISC forms as they have, and we’ve been asking them for a number of months”, Leong said.

He said these forms are crucial evidence to prove that the works conform to approved designs, and the railway only received from Leighton ‘as-constructed’ drawings of what was built at two approach tunnels and a secondary track in December.

It was only after MTR officials combed through these drawings that they realised that Leighton had changed the approved design for some reinforcement bars at the tunnels, and that many documents were missing, Leung said.

“I myself will not believe that we’ll be able to find these missing forms”, he admitted.

But Leung stressed that the alteration – changing ‘lapped’ rebars to ones that are fixed to couplers – are relatively common in complex projects, and “there is currently no evidence or sign of any structural issues that may raise any concerns regarding the safety of these structures.”

He added that these are ‘simple’ structures that rest mainly on solid ground, and trains have been using the tunnels as part of tests of the station extension without any problems.

But Leong couldn’t say whether the new revelations will cause further delays to the opening of the Shatin-to-Central line, saying only that the rail firm will focus on finding the missing documentation, and will work with the government on how to proceed.

Leong didn’t explain why the MTRC didn’t realise the problem earlier, because the railway is supposed to sign off on these RISC after inspecting the construction works. He would only say that the railway didn’t do a good job in overseeing the project.

“We ourselves at MTR should have done better in ensuring the completeness of necessary documentation. This is an improvement which we need to make”, Leong said.

The MTR is also under fire for apparently inaccurate tests it has been conducting on the problem-plagued platforms of the same station.

For over a month, staff have been using an ultrasound machine to test whether steel rebars are properly screwed into couplers, after allegations that the bars were systematically cut short, and installed improperly.

But on Wednesday, it was revealed at a Commission of Inquiry that physical examinations of several bars conducted by the police – after they were cut out of the cement – revealed that the ultrasound measurements were significantly off.

The MTR's Divisional General Manager for Projects, James Chow, said they’d had extensive discussions with government experts on the methodology of the non-destructive tests when coming up with this ultrasound method.

He said they are now following up with officials on why the ultrasound results differ so much from the physical examinations, and tests originally scheduled for Thursday have been cancelled as a result.