18 June 1998: Pilkington Glass of the UK has reportedly admitted liability and will pay a multi-million pound repair bill to replace defective glazing at Hong Kong“s new airport at Chep Lap Kok (see …
18 June 1998: Pilkington Glass of the UK has reportedly admitted liability and will pay a multi-million pound repair bill to replace defective glazing at Hong Kong“s new airport at Chep Lap Kok (see GlassOnline report of 4 June 1998). The defects were first noticed a few months ago and could involve replacing more than 70,000 sq. m. (13,800 panes) of glass at the airport. The problems concern bubbles and other signs of delaminations of the PVB layer in the laminated glazing panels. The delaminations are said to be purely of a cosmetic nature and do not pose any structural problems, according to a recent press report. The problems are not expected to delay the official opening of the airport, which is scheduled for 6 July. Glass for the scheme was supplied by Flachglas, a German subsidiary of Pilkington, and Hong Kong company Nippon Light Metal (NLM) was responsible for putting up and fabricating the framework for the glazing. An assessment team has been set up on site to inspect all the glazing and identify which panes need replacing. Members of the team are drawn from Pilkington, NLM, the Provisional Airport Authority and the BCJ Joint Venture, the main contractor consortium led by Amec. An Amec spokesman said that there was “no talk about legal action” being taken over the defects, and added that the cause of the problem had not yet been identified. One consultant reportedly said that it was unusual because “Flachglas has a good name”.