The Veterans' Stories

Bob
I know it is a photo of Kowloon City in the 50s, when Kai Tak was under extension. But where is it exactly in the photo?
 
Lau Yee Kow
Nga Tsin Wai Road and Grampian Road. Dump trucks were everywhere in Kowloon City when they were constructing the runway. The area was all mucky and the mess ran on for years…
The construction of airport runway and its effect on Kowloon City
They made a haulage way out of Nga Tsin Wai Road to deliver the spoils to the runway. The hill behind Kowloon City was excavated to fill up the coast for the runway construction, and they put up an elevated road as haulage way to carry the spoils. In Nga Tsin Long Road there were all these crates, which were transported out through this haulage way. The demolition blasting was violent, you see, and the noise was loud. The construction went on for many years. When they were doing the reclamation we fished at the runway site, and the airport staffs also fished at the runway site. There were many fishes before the construction was done, because they scooped out several drainage trenches. There were four trenches, so we had a lot of fishes.
During the Kai Tak extension project in the 1950s, a section of the temporary haulage way at Nga Tsin Wai Road was elevated. The elevated road was put up at the Hau Wong Road junction next to Kowloon City Wet Market, so that vehicles and pedestrians could pass through.