HKCEC Expo Drive and Phase II Expansion Projects

Expo Drive

International exhibitions and conventions are among the major contributors to Hong Kong’s economy and the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) is the premier exhibition and convention venue in Hong Kong. Throughout the year major exhibitions are held in the 7 halls located within the 5 level building. The building has the capacity to accommodate 40,000 occupants during exhibitions. However, the demand on exhibition space has regularly been on rise and has been placing pressure on the HKCEC management. In order to address the increasing demand in the long term, a building expansion project which will increase the exhibition floor area significantly has recently commenced. To meet the requirement for additional exhibition space during the construction period, the HKCEC management has decided to partially convert the existing Basement Carpark in the HKCEC building into exhibition use during the peak exhibition season. The car park is to remain partly in-use during such times and to revert to car parking use for the rest of the time. The existing basement is approximately 4m below Ground Floor or street level. The total floor area is approximately 20,600m², about 7000m² of which is proposed to be converted into exhibition use. The exhibition floor will comprise two zones. Each zone will be a separate fire compartment. This will be achieved by means of existing and new fire shutters. A third area (ie a buffer zone) will separate the two exhibition zones. This particular zone has a floor with 1:10 ascending slope towards the smaller of the halls.

A number of design issues resulting from the proposed conversion that conflicted with the building codes of Hong Kong were identified. The main design issues included the following:

• Insufficient width of exit doors and exit routes.
• Extended travel distances
• Construction of staircase.
• Exit route does not directly leading to a street or to open area.
• Reduced Fire Resistance Provisions to compartment walls
• Fireman’s lift 60m requirements not satisfied

The project is unique in its nature that large numbers of occupants (ie 3500) will be occupying a below ground space with means of egress originally designed for much smaller numbers. Hence, any solution developed would require not only highly sophisticated active and passive fire safety systems but also an advanced fire risk and safety management system to be developed and imposed. The project is also a significant example of how the commonly faced issue of “change in use” can be addressed by adopting a performance based fire engineering approach.

For the assessment of the development of fires in the exhibition hall and the occupant movement during fires multiple methods and fire engineering tools were adopted including:

• Hand calculations using equations including NFPA 92B (NFPA, 2002)
• Zone modelling using NIST software CFAST
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling using NIST software Fire Dynamiocs Simulator (FDS)
• Network modelling using EVACNET4.
• Occupant movement modelling using SIMULEX 3.0.

The assessment resulted in new fire safety systems being introduced including aspirating smoke detection systems and improved smoke hazard management systems. As part of the risk analysis conducted the fuel loads and corresponding fire sizes were identified as being critical to life safety. Hence, a concept of categorising probable fuel loads and identifying the likely fuel load for each exhibition was introduced as a major requirement. Based on the category of the fuel load it is proposed to introduce additional management measures which would play a key role in mitigating the additional levels of risk.

Phase II Expansion

The existing Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) consists of two separate buildings known as Phase I and Phase II buildings. These two buildings are currently connected by an atrium link bridge. It was proposed to expand the HKCEC by construction of a 6 storey building known as ‘Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Expansion’ connecting the existing Phase I and Phase II building. The proposed Expansion building spans a body of water and increases approximately 50 % exhibition space of the existing Halls 1, 2 and 3.

Halls 1 and 2 will be extended by approximately 7,200 square metres each. Hall 3 Extension will be slightly smaller of approximately 5,000 square metres. Other supporting and ancillary facilities at hall and mezzanine levels include foyers, cafes/restaurants, food concession areas, organiser's offices, store rooms, and so forth.

The major non-compliances identified in relation to the expansion project were identified as follows:

• Exit Location, Dimension, Discharge Value and Travel Distance Issues
• Compartment volume of the expansion halls and the existing exhibition halls and the combined volume of the expansion foyers exceed the code limit of 28,000 m3.
• Discharge of Exit Routes to Covered Road Areas
• Fire Separation of Phase I and Phase II Expansion Buildings
• Stair design in relation to riser heights, stair widths and handrail provisions not complying with Places of Public Entertainment and MoE requirements
• Staircases having more than 2 successive flights without a turn are not in compliance with Places of Public Entertainment requirements.
• Discontinued Staircase Walls
• No transparent upper view panel is provided to the door from foyer/hall to the protected lobby of the required staircase
• Travel Distance to Fireman’s Lift Exceeds 60 m
• Modified Fire Separation between Exhibition Halls and Foyers
• Installation of Smoke Curtains in Lieu of Fixed Smoke Barriers

The fire engineering assessment conducted using qualitative methodologies and quantitative tools such as CFD models along with computer evacuation modelling software Simulex have demonstrated that the identified issues of non-compliance would be addressed by adopting an alternative solution.