The HK$8.1bn (£645m) terminal will be the largest in the world and a hub for cruise travel throughout south-east Asia.
Royal Haskoning will work in partnership with Hong Kong-based architectural consultant Au Posford to review the design requirements and outline a performance specification for the walkways, and then select a specialist contractor via tender procedures for their design and construction.
When complete, Kai Tak cruise terminal will cover 76,000m2 square metres of land and will have two berths along its 850m of quay. The first berth is due to be in operation by July 2013 and the second towards the end of 2014.
The five purpose-built passenger walkways will provide a weatherproof connection for all passengers and crew members between the moored cruise liners and the new terminal building at Kai Tak. Designed to be fully-automated, each walkway will traverse the length of the concourse alongside the berths on rails and will be lifted and lowered via hand-held devices.
“Royal Haskoning has 35 years experience of designing passenger walkways for cruise terminals around the world and has driven many innovative ideas around the passenger safety and operational aspects of designs,” said Tim Davies, Royal Haskoning’s director advisory group and maritime civil engineer. “Our team has also successfully written many performance specifications for the procurement of passenger walkways. This involves preparing pre-qualification and tendering procedures to select specialist contractors for the design, fabrication and operation of the walkways, in accordance with required legislation.”
The Royal Haskoning team’s key objective is to review the structural, mechanical and electrical specifications of the walkways to assess their compatibility with the quay deck structure and terminal building layout, and ensure the designs comply with Hong Kong legislative requirements. Royal Haskoning will then prepare the procurement documents, performance specification and tender documents. The next stage will be to assess the tender documents received from specialist manufacturers and recommend a suitable company to be appointed.
A number of elements are required to be incorporated into the performance specification for the walkways. Their design and structure will need to accommodate movement of the vessel caused by tidal and environmental changes, both when traversing the quayside and while carrying passengers. The width of the walkway design will need to be limited to ensure the store access doors on the sides of the vessel remain accessible. A tie-down facility will also be incorporated into the design for occasions when typhoon warnings are issued, and each of the walkways will be required to be connected to a backup generator in case of mains power failure from the terminal building.
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