About 30 concrete columns at Hong Kong's unfinished Tung Chung West station found defective
Hong Kong's Buildings Department says about 30 of the concrete columns at Tung Chung West, an MTR station still under construction, were poured short of the slab above. The MTR halted the work after the contractor tried a repair nobody had approved.
The first bad column surfaced in early October. The registered structural engineer on the project spotted it and told the contractor to fix it, the Buildings Department said, but because it posed no immediate danger, the site supervision code did not require a report to the department. Inspectors confirmed two defective columns during a routine audit on Oct. 27. More turned up as formwork came off, the engineer reported them on Nov. 3, and by Nov. 6 the count was about 30.
The MTR told the Highways Department on Nov. 2 that the contractor had tried to fix some platform-level columns with an unapproved method, and the rail operator stopped the work. Photos first published by HK01 showed gaps of 20 to 30 centimeters (about 8 to 12 inches) between the column tops and the slab, with rebar exposed, Dimsum Daily reported. The station's main contractor is a joint venture of Bouygues and Dragages.
Tung Chung West uses top-down construction, with slabs cast before the columns. Temporary props still carry the slabs, so the department says the structure is not at risk, and a preliminary review found no deliberate departure from approved plans. The engineer owes an investigation report and repair proposal by mid-November. The Highways Department gave the MTR two weeks for its own detailed report, told it to make the contractor pay for repairs, and says the 2029 opening still stands.
Lawmakers and engineers called the mistakes "unimaginable" and urged the MTR to give frontline workers a way to report problems during construction, the South China Morning Post reported. No agency has said yet why the pours came up short.
Why it matters: A defect spotted in early October reached the regulator weeks later because no rule required a report, and the contractor improvised a fix. Make sure your QA plan escalates every nonconforming pour and bans repairs without an approved method.
Sources
- Short-poured columns at Tung Chung West Station leave gaps, MTR halts workDimsum Daily, Nov 6
- Substandard columns found at MTR site in Tung ChungRTHK, Nov 7
- Buildings Department confirms 30 MTR Tung Chung West Station columns defectiveDimsum Daily, Nov 7
- 30 defective pillars found at Tung Chung West station as MTR ordered to report within two weeksThe Standard (Hong Kong), Nov 8
- Defects at Hong Kong MTR station 'unimaginable', engineers and lawmakers saySouth China Morning Post, Nov 8