[iMail, November 21, 2001] DRAINAGE officials are jump-starting further work on the $26 billion strategic sewerage project, now renamed the harbour area treatment scheme, with an invitation to consultants to study alternative funding and procurement options.

The move comes as contractors are set to hold a ceremony on December 10 to mark completion of the first-stage tunnel network. The event will signify the completion of six years of tunnelling to build the 25-kilometre deep-tunnel system that is massively over budget and 4 years late.

The Drainage Services Department (DSD) has invited 10 consultants to express interest by Thursday to carry out the procurement options study. They are Babtie Asia; Camp Dresser & McKee International; CH2M Hill (China); Faithful & Gould; Maunsell Consultants Asia; Mott Connell; Mouchel Asia; Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong; Parsons Brinckerhoff (Asia); and Scott Wilson (Hong Kong).

The DSD is expect to shortlist about four firms who will be invited to tender by the end of this year. A successful consultant will be appointed ready for work to start early next year. According to the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), the firm will investigate the possibility of using design, build and operate concessions, that could be privately funded, to develop future phases of the harbour sewage treatment scheme.

The idea of using private-sector finance was put forward by an international review panel led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dr Donald Harleman that reviewed the sewage disposal scheme last year.

The panel recommended significant changes to the original government plans that were prepared in 1989.

Speaking after the publication of the group's report a year ago, Harleman thought the private sector could pay for additional sewage treatment plants the team proposed building at Lamma, North Point and Sandy Bay.

Other parts of the project, including a network of tunnels and pipelines on Hong Kong island, would be funded by the taxpayer through the government's public works programme.

The Harleman review panel suggested four options involving an initial capital cost between $14.3 billion and $15.5 billion and annual recurrent costs of $1.65 billion to $2.1billion. This compares with the $21.4 billion in capital costs and $1.57 billion in operating expenses estimated for the earlier government scheme.

The four options are:

Construction of tunnels along the northern shore of Hong Kong Island from North Point and from Ap Lei Chau via Pok Fu Lam to Central, linking to a new tunnel across the harbour to the existing Stonecutters Island plant.

Construction of tunnels from North Point via Central and Ap Lei Chau to a new treatment works at Lamma quarry.

Construction of a tunnel from North Point via Central to the Stonecutters Island treatment plant and an independent network of pipelines from Ap Lei Chau to a treatment works at Sandy Bay, near Pok Fu Lam, for discharge via a diffuser system.

Construction of a tunnel from Central to a treatment plant at North Point to discharge into the harbour, and a separate pipeline system between Ap Lei Chau and Sandy Bay for treatment and discharge.

Officials have already accepted in principle plans to use the private sector to finance part of the new work, although further appraisals, part of the new study, will be needed to see if it is cost-effective.

The EPD said the successful firm will ``also develop a framework that would help delivery of the project in a cost effective manner and identify the most appropriate means in operating the projects''.

It said the consultant would also prepare schematic designs, costs estimates and an implementation programme for the four alternatives put forward by the Harleman group.

The firm ``will consider and recommend the preferred procurement arrangements for the four options''. This information will be used in some of the four other studies that are being planned by the DSD and EPD as part of a wider government assessment of the Harleman recommendations.

All the studies and trials are expected to be completed in 2004.