'Minor exit settlement won't affect railway safety'
Transport Secretary Lam Sai-hung on Wednesday reassured the public that subsidence at the Sung Wong Toi MTR station would not affect railway safety. A monitoring checkpoint detected on Monday that the ground level of an emergency exit there had sunk by two centimetres during foundation works at a nearby public housing project in Kai Tak. That triggered the suspension of foundation works within 30 metres of the exit. Lam described it as "minor settlement". He confirmed that the rail operator and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department had checked the monitoring data and found that the subsidence did not affect the safety of the railway facilities. The transport minister said the authorities will continue to closely monitor the situation and implement mitigation measures before work at the construction site is to resume. Engineering sector legislator, Lo Wai-kwok, said the incident showed the monitoring system was effective. He sought to allay concerns over the sinking of the ground, saying the suspension of works did not signal any immediate risk. Kowloon Central constituency lawmaker, Yang Wing-kit, warned that the problem would worsen and affect the safety of the MTR if work at all six construction sites in Kai Tak was being carried out at the same time.  He urged the government to strengthen monitoring.