The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) headquarters building, in Central, Hong Kong, took seven years to complete from concept to construction and has become not only the icon for the region’s largest bank but the city of Hong Kong itself. It’s the fourth HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong.(1) The new building was designed by the British architect Norman Foster and […]
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HF: “The third reservoir in Hong Kong, the Wong Nai Chung Reservoir, was built at Tai Tam Reservoir Road in Wong Nai Chung in 1899. The reservoir dam followed the topography of the valley. It was 50 feet high, 270 feet long and was boomerang-shaped. The reservoir had a small water storage capacity of just 27 million gallons, only 38% […]
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York Lo: Shanghainese Builders in Hong Kong (Part One) – the Pre-War Pioneers (Yaik Sang, Sung Kee Zee and Dao Kee) Having contributed to the building of pre-war Shanghai into the leading metropolis in the Far East, Shanghainese builders and construction firms played a critical role in the post war construction boom in Hong Kong as the city emerged as […]
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IDJ has sent this 1997 article published on behalf of the HK Academy of Engineering Sciences and HK Institution of Engineers. “In 1989 Hong Kong Electric pioneered the introduction of mechanised tunnelling to Hong Kong, accepting the only bid that proposed the use of a tunnel boring machine for the construction of a 5.7 kilometre, 5 metre diameter cable tunnel […]
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Tymon Mellor: We take for granted that when we turn a tap on clean water will flow. However, for the majority of Hong Kong’s colonial history, there were water shortages and supply restrictions. This was not a result of poor policy decisions but of changing circumstances, financial limitations and geographical constraints, and unlike other major conurbations, Hong Kong has no […]
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Tymon Mellor: The question was, “Who is Charles L Shank and what was his connection to the Shek Lai Pui Reservoir?”. A rather open question, but one that has led to an interesting journey. The questioner had acquired a large format book with 122 professional photographs of pre-war Hong Kong construction sites. Sample photographs provided documented the construction of the […]
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IDJ has sent in more information about the Lam Tei Quarry and its connection to the proposed Ping Shan Airport. This time a Technical Bulletin from the Airfield Construction Service (RAF) from May 1946. Click the images to enlarge. RECORD BLASTING AT PING SHAN A.C.S Technical Magazine Vol. 2. No. 2 May 1946 Several times a week the echoes […]
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The Tsing Ma bridge in Hong Kong is the world’s 11th-longest span suspension bridge, and was the second longest at time of completion.[3] The bridge was named after two of the islands at its ends, namely Tsing Yi and Ma Wan. It has two decks and carries both road and rail traffic, which also makes it the largest suspension bridge of this type. The bridge has a main […]
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Ian Wolfe: The second photo shows construction of the basement of the Old Bank of China in progress with a Scotch [also known as a stiff-leg] derrick as the only means of rigging heavy steel sections, which was required for the excavation and lateral suppport (ESL) work when this was getting deeper. Scotch derricks were common in the old days […]
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Seawise Giant, later Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, Oppama, and finally Mont, was a ULCC supertanker (ultra large crude carrier) that was the longest ship ever built. She possessed the greatest deadweight tonnage ever recorded. Fully loaded, her displacement was 657,019 tonnes (646,642 long tons; 724,239 short tons), the heaviest ship of any kind, and with a laden draft of 24.6 m (81 ft), she was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez […]
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