The Highways Department today signed a $1.366 billion contract with China Harbour Engineering for the reconstruction and improvement of the 4.7km-long section of Tuen Mun Road from Siu Lam to Sam Shing Hui.

The contract is to upgrade the section to meet current expressway standards. The works include widening traffic lanes, building hard shoulders and verges, highway structures, and associated environmental mitigation measures such as drainage, slope works and landscaping.

Speaking at the contract signing ceremony, Director of Highways Wai Chi-sing said the reconstruction and improvement for the entire expressway section of Tuen Mun Road, a 15.5km-long dual three-lane expressway linking Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun, would be implemented under three works contracts, which will create more than 2,000 jobs.

The first two contracts began construction last October and in February, covering the section between Tsuen Wan and Tai Lam. All works will be completed in 2014.

Mr Wai also said the widening of the Tuen Mun Road Town Centre section between Yan Oi Town Square and Wong Chu Road, from a dual two-lane to a dual three-lane carriageway, will start by the end of this year at the earliest.

Several other road works and railway projects will also be launched this year, including the widening of Tolo Highway from the Island House Interchange to Fanling, the Central-Wan Chai Bypass, the West Island Line and the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.

"Implementation of these projects will create tens of thousands of jobs," Mr Wai said.