UK engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald has been appointed by the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) to provide environmental monitoring and auditing services for the expansion of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA).
The new three-runway system will allow HKIA to handle expected future traffic demand of over 100 million passengers, nearly 9m tonnes of cargo and 607,000 aircraft movements per year by 2030.
Overall works on the project include the reclamation of approximately 650ha of land north of the existing airport island, bounded by approximately 13km of seawall, along with the construction of the third runway, taxiways and apron with 57 parking positions.
A third runway concourse will also be built, while the existing Terminal 2 will be modified and expanded. Â
Mott MacDonald will monitor and review the impact of construction on air and water quality, noise, marine and terrestrial ecology, waste and sewage management, fisheries, land contamination and the overall landscape.
A Chinese white dolphin (TakoradeeGFDL/Wikimedia Commons)
Special attention will be given to the monitoring of Chinese white dolphins (pictured) so any potential construction impacts to this threatened species are minimised or mitigated.
Eric Ching, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: "This appointment reaffirms our leading position for providing environmental services in Hong Kong and continues our long-term working relationship with the AA."
"Our customised geospatial data management system enables efficient on-site data collection and processing and was key to our appointment.
"The combination of this, along with our committed team and extensive environmental track record in Hong Kong, has given the AA confidence that we will be able to deliver this challenging project to the highest standard."
Mott MacDonald’s environmental monitoring commission will run for the duration of the expansion of HKIA into a three-runway system.
The company has been working continuously at HKIA for over 20 years.
In February this year it was announced that Turner & Townsend is to masterplan the HKIA expansion.
Top image: A bird’s eye view of Hong Kong International Airport in 2010 (Wylkie Chan/Wikimedia Commons)
