When MTR tunnelling made Hennessy Road collapse in Hong Kong, and 140 people had to be evacuated on New Year’s Day
A 20-metre deep hole appeared in the road and residents were left too scared to return to their homes after work on the MTR Island line caused massive subsidence at ground level
“More than 140 people had a rude awakening to the New Year when they had to be evacuated from two Wanchai buildings in the early hours of yesterday morning after a huge chunk of Hennessy Road sank,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 2, 1983. “The collapse could be a result of tunnelling work currently in progress for the Island line in the area, both the Government and the Mass Transit Railway Corporation admitted.
“Full investigations will be launched by both the Government and the MTRC to ascertain the cause of what could be the most serious road subsidence recorded in Hongkong apart from natural disasters. More than 146 people were evacuated from the Soldiers Home and a neighbouring 15-storey commercial and residential building at 18-20 Hennessy Road after a 20-metre deep hole appeared in the road. An angry meeting of Hennessy Road residents last night called on the Government to stop all MTRC tunnelling in the Wanchai area.”
On January 3rd, the Post wrote that “many residents affected by the Wanchai road collapse in the early hours of New Year’s Day are too scared to return to their homes, despite a Government assurance that their block of flats is safe.
“Residents of No 18-20 Hennessy Road – a 15-storey residential and commercial block – are expected to spend the next few days staying with relatives and friends or in hotels. According to the residents who went back yesterday to collect belongings, nobody stayed in the flats on Saturday night and it is unlikely that they will return until the Government issues a written confirmation assuring them that the foundations of the block are safe.”
On January 25th, the Post reported that “the Mass Transit Railway Corpn has announced that blasting will start from today underneath Hennessy Road in Wanchai – less than a month after a huge chunk of that road collapsed. Blasting with gelignite is expected to occur two to three times daily for two weeks, a spokesman said last night. The MTR Corpn admitted the link between the 23-metre deep hole that appeared in Hennessy Road and work on the Island line earlier this month.
“The spokesman said, however, that the proposed blasting work will be ‘quite a long way back, towards Admiralty’ from the site of the hole and will be through solid rock. ‘It will not have any effect on the earlier affected area’.”
