This is the other end of the tunnel in my last MTR report. We are now 3.2km further on and are right in the centre of the Admiralty district of Hong Kong.
This is going to be the main ventilation plant for the tunnel once the trains are running, with the building at the other end being quite a lot smaller.
It took me a little while to track this down, having had a look at another area close by with Keitei and realised that they were fully active 24/7 I'd assumed this was part of the same complex. Luckily I managed to find some english language plans that showed me i was wrong.
Having been to check it out in the day time I realised that workers seemed to be living on the site, there were plenty of cabins with washing machines outside and areas with chairs and tables set up.
I knew there was a way down and that it was a long way from watching the crane lowering huge amounts of rebar into the gaping shaft. The only question was going to be if it was possible to get across the site to the scaffolding. Fortunately returning late on a saturday night, despite all the lights being on and the doors to the cabins open; there was no sign of life. Best of all there didn't seem to be anyone in either of the security cabins.
It was still a fairly tense job reaching the mouth of the shaft and the way down. We just had to hope that no one in any of the buildings circling the site would look out at the wrong time and go for it.
Heading down, the top level was marked as 16. We assumed that meant 16 floors to descend and pushed on.
The water on the bottom of the map below wasn't from rain, but I think due to the humidity as we got deeper into the structure. Even with fans and ducts running everywhere it was stifling.
You could actually see the mist hanging in the air.
Each floor as we went down was roughly the same as the others. Large concrete voids with varying amounts and types of machinery in. One had some of the giant fans that are no doubt going to be fitted before the trains start running, but we were too keen to reach the bottom to stop for pictures.
Almost there now!
Or not as it turned out.
We were indeed at the bottom of the stairs we had been taking, but there was no sign of the tunnel or tracks that were supposed to be there. Only another large concrete void and no obvious way to continue down.
Finally after searching about for some time we found a space next to the cage for the workers lift that could be squeezed through to allow us down to another level.
Confusingly were apparently now on level 8 again.
Best of all, the staircase on the map didn't yet exist; and would have only gone upwards if it did. The workers lift in the centre (820) also ended there. We started searching again and turned up some more dead ends.
The ladder above led down to a completely flooded chamber with no obvious way out. Eventually we found another set of ladders and were able to continue downwards.
By now I could feel cool air blowing up from below and knew that we had to be close to the tunnels. Finally we reached the bottom of the last ladder and saw the tunnels in front of us.
The two holes on either side of the picture above were above what seemed to be an underground river. Whatever it was, there was a lot of fast flowing water and I definitely wasn't going down for a look.
I was surprised not to find tracks in yet at this end, they are already laid on the far side and I believe the tunnel was started from the Hong Kong side. This side seems nowhere near as close to being finished.
By now I had started to realise that the noise I was ignoring and hoping was just the ventilation system probably wasn't. It was sounding more and more like an engine and was getting louder.
Considering that I've seen vehicles driving the tunnel at the other end on both occasions I've been down there we decided to move back and hide and wait. As the noise got louder still my partner for the evening suggested climbing back up a level. I'd just started up the ladder when I saw a row of hard hats heading directly to where we were. I've no idea if they saw me, but we didn't hang about for the 24 floors we had to climb back out. I was waiting for the lift to start up the whole way but happily it seemed that we were in the clear.
Hopefully It'll still be possible to get back down when the work is closer to being finished. I've thought about to a few times now, but maybe I'll see about walking the full length of the tunnel and seeing whats there..
This is going to be the main ventilation plant for the tunnel once the trains are running, with the building at the other end being quite a lot smaller.
It took me a little while to track this down, having had a look at another area close by with Keitei and realised that they were fully active 24/7 I'd assumed this was part of the same complex. Luckily I managed to find some english language plans that showed me i was wrong.
Having been to check it out in the day time I realised that workers seemed to be living on the site, there were plenty of cabins with washing machines outside and areas with chairs and tables set up.
I knew there was a way down and that it was a long way from watching the crane lowering huge amounts of rebar into the gaping shaft. The only question was going to be if it was possible to get across the site to the scaffolding. Fortunately returning late on a saturday night, despite all the lights being on and the doors to the cabins open; there was no sign of life. Best of all there didn't seem to be anyone in either of the security cabins.
It was still a fairly tense job reaching the mouth of the shaft and the way down. We just had to hope that no one in any of the buildings circling the site would look out at the wrong time and go for it.
Heading down, the top level was marked as 16. We assumed that meant 16 floors to descend and pushed on.
The water on the bottom of the map below wasn't from rain, but I think due to the humidity as we got deeper into the structure. Even with fans and ducts running everywhere it was stifling.
You could actually see the mist hanging in the air.
Each floor as we went down was roughly the same as the others. Large concrete voids with varying amounts and types of machinery in. One had some of the giant fans that are no doubt going to be fitted before the trains start running, but we were too keen to reach the bottom to stop for pictures.
Almost there now!
Or not as it turned out.
We were indeed at the bottom of the stairs we had been taking, but there was no sign of the tunnel or tracks that were supposed to be there. Only another large concrete void and no obvious way to continue down.
Finally after searching about for some time we found a space next to the cage for the workers lift that could be squeezed through to allow us down to another level.
Confusingly were apparently now on level 8 again.
Best of all, the staircase on the map didn't yet exist; and would have only gone upwards if it did. The workers lift in the centre (820) also ended there. We started searching again and turned up some more dead ends.
The ladder above led down to a completely flooded chamber with no obvious way out. Eventually we found another set of ladders and were able to continue downwards.
By now I could feel cool air blowing up from below and knew that we had to be close to the tunnels. Finally we reached the bottom of the last ladder and saw the tunnels in front of us.
The two holes on either side of the picture above were above what seemed to be an underground river. Whatever it was, there was a lot of fast flowing water and I definitely wasn't going down for a look.
I was surprised not to find tracks in yet at this end, they are already laid on the far side and I believe the tunnel was started from the Hong Kong side. This side seems nowhere near as close to being finished.
By now I had started to realise that the noise I was ignoring and hoping was just the ventilation system probably wasn't. It was sounding more and more like an engine and was getting louder.
Considering that I've seen vehicles driving the tunnel at the other end on both occasions I've been down there we decided to move back and hide and wait. As the noise got louder still my partner for the evening suggested climbing back up a level. I'd just started up the ladder when I saw a row of hard hats heading directly to where we were. I've no idea if they saw me, but we didn't hang about for the 24 floors we had to climb back out. I was waiting for the lift to start up the whole way but happily it seemed that we were in the clear.
Hopefully It'll still be possible to get back down when the work is closer to being finished. I've thought about to a few times now, but maybe I'll see about walking the full length of the tunnel and seeing whats there..
