Lok On Pai “desalting” plant, 1975-1981 – mystery of non-demolition of main building
New information in red. Thomas Ngan recently posted these comments in response to the article, Lok On Pai “desalting” plant, 1975-1981.
a) The main building still exists today. Only the chimneys and the generators have been demolished/removed.
The lot has been occupied as a weekend/holiday flea market for quite a few years. Don’t know what might have happened in the past year or so as I have not been there for almost a year.
Last time I was there some movie makers were filming some Police/Crime movie there with lots of people in tactical gears.
b) Google Map marker for the flea market (https://goo.gl/maps/L117S)
Note, the market location is wrong. The actual flea market sits on the right hand side of the T shape, not the left.
HF: I wrote at the end of the first article, “the Lok On Pai desalting plant was demolished in 1991. I wonder why it took ten years for this to happen?” I can’t remember where I found that statement but it seems inaccurate unless it was referring only to the chimneys and generators as Thomas suggests. His google map clearly shows a long white building running parallel to the coast. The revised question seems to be, I wonder why the main plant has still not been demolished twenty three years after its closure?
I have received the following information:- The Provisional Airport Authority (PAA) used LOP as a storage area and boat quay for the construction of Chek Lap Kok airport. This included stripping out and some re-fitting of the main building. There were plans for demolition but I think there was a very high risk of asbestos within the facility that would require specialist removal, pushing the costs up. I suspect that is still the issue today.
This article was first posted on 16th October 2014.
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