The late submission of Request for Inspection & Survey Checking (RISC) forms for works relating to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge’s link road does not involve quality issues, the Highways Department said.

The department added that before the bridge opened to traffic, it was confirmed that the works were carried out according to contract requirements, and the works’ technical and safety requirements were met.

Responding to media enquiries today, the department said the project concerned is the Hong Kong Link Road section between Scenic Hill and Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities, with Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited as the engineering consultant and China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Limited the main contractor.

The department said in end-July last year, the engineering consultant’s resident site staff reported that the contractor had not submitted over 10,000 RISC forms in time according to contract requirements. This accounted for about 28% of such required forms.

At the department’s request, the resident site staff filed site construction records in last August. Such records were then scrutinised by an independent consultant appointed by the department.

The independent consultant found the resident site staff were able to provide ample evidence in a short time, showing the engineering consultant had all along kept systematically a large number of photo records. The staff interviewed were familiar with details of the supervision works.

During the scrutiny, no forgery of documents was found, the department added.

It also said according to contract requirements, the contractor filed the concerned RSIC forms with the dates indicating when the forms were signed - instead of the construction dates - to show they were submitted late.

The department has reflected in quarterly reports the unsatisfactory performances of the engineering consultant and the contractor, and urged them to improve.