MTR West Island Line opens in Hong Kong

The West Island Line (WIL), an extension of the MTR metro system in Hong Kong, has officially opened. Mott MacDonald has been involved with the project since 2009.
 
WIL is a 3.3km long-extension to the Island Line and connects Sheung Wan station to the three newly-built stations of Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong University (HKU) and Kennedy Town. It now takes only about 7 minutes to travel the length of the extension compared with the 30 minutes it used to by bus. Road congestion will be eased in the western district also as a result of the new line.
 
Mott MacDonald’s involvement in the project included the detailed design for the temporary works and construction sequences for the caverns, the associated running tunnels and various entrances at Sai Ying Pun and HKU stations, on behalf of the Gammon-Nishimatsu WIL joint venture (JV). The company also designed the overrun tunnels at Kennedy Town Station and associated slope works along the alignment with Meinhardt for MTR. Systems assurance services were to the Dragages-Maeda-Bachy Soletanche JV for the Sheung Wan to Sai Ying Pun tunnels. Mott MacDonald’s design services included innovations such as 3D modelling of ground conditions, discrete finite element analysis, highly detailed blasting assessments and ground freezing for passenger entrance tunnels.
 
Dr. Mark Swales, a transport director at Mott MacDonald in Hong Kong, commented: “The significant depth of the tunnels and caverns, in the highly-urbanised location, certainly made this project one of the more complex type, ranging from detailed design of drill and blast for rock sections to system assurance for tunnel boring machine sections. Projects such as these provide the technical challenges that Mott MacDonald likes to undertake and we are very proud to have been involved in the WIL.”