Hock Kee House (HKH), a building next to the future Paya Lebar Station of the Circle Line (CCL), will be affected by the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) deep excavation works which are about to resume. The structure and condition of the building is such that the building will not be deemed safe with the resumption of excavation works. As such, HKH will have to be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) and demolished in order to allow construction works for the CCL to resume. The owners of the properties in HKH will be compensated according to the provisions of the LAA. LTA will also provide a special financial assistance package over and above the usual LAA compensation to assist the owners in making arrangements for relocation at short notice.

Hock Kee House
HKH is a five-storey building located near the junction of Geylang Road and Paya Lebar Road. Built in the 1960s, HKH was constructed on footings rather than on piles, resting on thick layers of soft marine clay. It is situated seven metres south-west of the rail tunnel leading to the Paya Lebar Station, an interchange station for the CCL and the East West Line.
In 2003, when LTA discovered that HKH was on footings, the Authority took measures to strengthen the design of the temporary works in a bid to reduce the settlement of the building due to the excavation, and carefully monitored the building during the excavation work. The building assessment done at that time was that HKH could be preserved despite the excavation works.
In April 2004, excavation next to HKH was put on hold following the Nicoll Highway incident, as additional checks and reviews on the design of temporary works for all LTA contracts involving deep excavation works were conducted. Meanwhile, based on the settlement readings for the building, it became clear that more had to be done to enable HKH to withstand further ground movement that was likely to occur when excavation resumed.
LTA hence studied how the building could be strengthened and alternative alignments for the tunnels to minimise the impact on HKH. However, none of these measures were found to be feasible, leaving the demolition of HKH as the only option.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA), as the competent authority on building safety, has also recently done an independent assessment of HKH. BCA has found that the building is currently safe for occupation.
However, BCA agreed with LTA's findings that the building will not be safe once deep excavation works resumes as the building would not be able to withstand the ground movement that is likely to be caused by the excavation. Further, any works to strengthen the building are not likely to be fully effective.

Land Acquisition
The Government has therefore decided that HKH will have to be acquired and demolished before any excavation in the area is allowed to resume for purposes of CCL works.
The land to be acquired was gazetted on 11 August 2005. The occupants of HKH will have to move out of their properties by 12 September 2005. Owners of properties in HKH will be compensated according to the provisions of the LAA.
In addition to the LAA compensation, LTA will provide the owners with a special financial assistance package to assist them in making arrangements for their relocation within a month. Details of this assistance package will be communicated to the individual owners. LTA will also render assistance to the owners by providing a sample list of properties currently available in the market to facilitate their relocation.

Issued by:
The Land Transport Authority, Building and Construction Authority and Singapore Land Authority
11 August 2005