Chris KW Cheung

Chris KW Cheung

Time flies, it has been 35 years since I left the beautiful campus at the centre of the city. Looking back, it was just like yesterday.  During my 35 years in construction industry, like many fellow alumni, I love my works and maintain passion to strike for excellence.

I am now working in a major reclamation project in Hong Kong.  The project adopts sustainable non-dredged method and a new ground treatment method – deep cement mixing.  This method treats the in-situ soft clay to provide a strong foundation for the seawall and for the control of reclamation settlement.  The new method shortens the time for reclamation and reduce the demand of fill material.  The success of the new method proved that reclamation can be done much faster and in a sustainable way.

I also have chance to collaborate with Prof. J H Yin and his research team on the field trial of an innovative idea of ground treatment works.  I was not just amazed by the innovative idea of Prof. Yin but also the passions of his team of energetic research students. The idea of reusing dredged marine mud for reclamation and treated by horizontal drains and vacuum to accelerate the consolidation process, effectively reuse the dredged mud in a sustainable way.  The research team also installed innovative instruments for monitoring of the consolidation process by measuring the change in pore water pressure and undrained shear strength in the mud layer.  Working with PolyU research team reminded me again that engineering innovation needs passion and patience.

I would like to share a quote that I remind myself when I face difficult times; “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it – Steve Jobs”