Quality concerns prompt further tests on concrete used in 3 public housing blocks

The quality of concrete used in three blocks of a public housing estate under construction in Tung Chung requires further testing and review, Hong Kong’s Housing Authority has revealed.

According to official documents, the main contractor on the project is Able Engineering. The same company is also involved in a scandal over defective lift installation work at an expansion project at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam.

The authority said on Saturday that regular checks had uncovered issues with the quality of concrete used in three blocks of the estate at Tung Chung Area 42 on Lantau Island between late August and early September.

“The Housing Authority’s engineering team discovered during routine concrete cube strength tests between late August and early September that the quality of concrete used in certain structural components of blocks 3, 4 and 5 at the Tung Chung Area 42 public housing estate required further review and testing,” a spokesman said.

The estate, with a total site area of about four hectares, comprises six residential blocks, providing more than 6,000 public housing flats for a planned population of 16,611. The project’s cost was estimated at about HK$5.4 billion in 2023.

The authority said it had instructed the contractor to extract additional concrete core samples for compressive strength testing in accordance with contract standards to assess whether the concrete strength met the design and contractual requirements.