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6.10.8 The two recommended projects in the East Kowloon Corridor, the Hung HornBypass extension and the Second Airport tunnel, are recommended for constructionin the early 1990s. The recommendation on the Second Airport tunnel is subject toresolving the engineering problems of tunnelling through the difficult groundconditions of the Kai Tak reclamation while maintaining runway operations, Atunnel would not, of course, be needed if the airport is to be relocated but additionalroad capacity would still be required.6.10.9 The Central and Wan Chai Bypass project is scheduled for the late 1990s on thebasis of traffic operation and availability of funding. It is likely that the opening of theWestern Harbour Crossing could give adequate traffic relief to Central and Wan Chasuntil the late 1990s. This indicates that the Central and Wanchai Reclamation has alower priority than the West Kowloon Reclamation from the point of view of theprovision of new highways.6.10.10 The extension of Route 7 from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen is an expensive project.Also it is expected to contribute significantly to the usage of the Western HarbourCrossing and the highways in West Kowloon. Therefore, in order to avoid overloadingthe West Kowloon Corridor in advance of the completion of the West KowloonExpressway, this project is programmed for a start in the late 1990s. Current thinkingnow appears to indicate a lower population growth for South-west Hong KongIsland and this would reinforce the proposed timing, although a possible decision torelocate the airport in the southern part of the Western Harbour could influence thisdecision the other way.6.10.11 The recommended highway investment programme also includes the Route 16project, a major highway linking West Kowloon with the North-east New Territories.On current forecasts of traffic, the completion of Route 16 would be desirable by2001 to give relief to the Lion Rock and Tate's Cairn tunnels which are expected tobe near capacity by then. However, the timing of Route 16 depends very much onthe growth of traffic demand and the extent to which the growth of goods vehicletraffic can be controlled. The project has been tentatively programmed for completionby the late 1990s. Apart from timing, the southern end of this route and the way itshould connect into urban Kowloon requires detailed investigation.6.10.1 2 The highway programme specifies many other road improvements in the urban areain the form of flyovers and road widenings. Rural road projects in the New Territoriesare included only partially on traffic grounds; in most cases, the existing roadsrequire re-alignment and roadbed reconstruction in order to meet modern designstandards. The programming of all these projects is recommended according to theschedule given in Table 6.4.Highway Funding6.10.13 The highway investment programme for the early 1990s fits with Governmentexpenditure guidelines. The programme also allows an additional 25% on top of thefunds indicated in Table 4 for other projects such as access roads, footbridges andtransport termini. The investment programme for the late 1990s is a little moretentative; much depends on the growth of the economy, the changing pattern ofland use to meet new policies and requirements, other competing demands onpublic expenditure and pressures on the construction industry.6.10.14 There are clearly some possibilities for private participation in new highway projects,similar to the present projects of the Eastern Harbour Crossing and the Tate's Cairntunnel. However, it is assumed that this will not expand the total funds for highwayconstruction but merely be a substitute for public funding.Further Studies6.10.15 Most of the candidate highway projects evaluated by CTS-2 were developed fromconceptual schemes identified in previous studies. For CTS-2, they were defined in115