引入全港首輛五軸重型拖車

機電署一直緊貼時代步伐。我們率先為運輸署引入全港首輛五軸重型拖車，以提升在政府日後落成的新隧道(例如位於港珠澳大橋香港連接路的觀景山隧道)、現行青馬管制區內不同大橋和其他現有隧道進行重型車輛救援的能力，加快移走因交通意外而阻塞路面的重型車輛。首批七輛五軸重型拖車已順利驗收並交付客戶。

全新五軸重型拖車的外殼主要選用較輕的鋁合金物料製造，車輛除採用歐盟六型環保引擎外，亦新增提供額外負載能力的第五軸，令車輛的總負載重量達46公噸，能掛載8公噸軸重及拖行重達70公噸的重型壞車，例如貨櫃車、吊臂車和重型特別用途車輛等。為配合香港各大橋和隧道的實際環境，拖車的第一、第二和第五軸採用同時動力轉向設計，令車輛在狹窄的地方操作時能夠保持靈活性。此外，集吊重和拖車功能於一身的設計，可協助迅速清理道路和拖走壞車，令交通恢復正常運作。

在緊急救援中靈活調配車隊可以發揮關鍵作用，因此，我們為運輸署設計新型救援拖車時，已將小型、中型和重型拖車標準化，讓各大橋、管制區及隧道在有限空間運作有關車輛時有更大靈活性，而此舉亦有助運輸署及不同地區的營辦商在使用時更容易掌握和適應政府拖車的特性。我們將積極向運輸業界推廣這個新的拖車設計概念，讓公私營車隊能一起提升車輛救援效率，縮短交通事故所需的救援時間，便利市民。

Hong Kong’s First Five-axle Heavy Recovery Vehicle

The EMSD always keeps pace with the times. We have taken the lead in introducing the first five-axle heavy recovery vehicle in Hong Kong for the Transport Department (TD) to strengthen the heavy vehicle recovery capability in future new government tunnels (e.g. the Scenic Hill Tunnel along the Hong Kong Link Road of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge), the existing bridges in Tsing Ma Control Area and other existing tunnels with a view to expediting the removal of heavy vehicles obstructing road traffic due to traffic accidents. The first batch of seven five-axle heavy recovery vehicles has successfully been accepted and handed over to the clients.

The body of the new five-axle heavy recovery vehicle is mainly made of light weight aluminum alloy. Equipped with the Euro VI environmentally friendly engine, the vehicle also has a new fifth axle providing it with extra loading capacity and bringing the total loading weight to 46 tonnes. This allows the vehicle to carry out suspended towing or direct towing for a broken-down heavy vehicle, such as container truck, crane truck and heavy special purpose vehicle, with a single axle weight up to eight tonnes or total vehicle weight up to 70 tonnes. To tie in with the actual environment of major bridges and tunnels in Hong Kong, the first, second and fifth axles are power-steered simultaneously, enabling the vehicle to manoeuvre in narrow spaces dexterously. Besides, the design of combining recovery and lifting functions can help quickly clear up the road and tow away the broken-down vehicles for resumption of normal traffic.

Flexible deployment of vehicle fleets plays a critical role in case of emergency recovery. Therefore, in designing heavy recovery vehicles for TD, EMSD has standardised the specifications for light, medium and heavy recovery vehicles, so that they can be operated with greater flexibility under different space constraints for bridges, control areas and tunnels. This also helps users of TD and various regional operators grasp and adapt to the characteristics of government recovery vehicles more easily. We will actively promote this new recovery vehicle design in the transportation industry so that both public and private fleets can work together to enhance the efficiency of vehicle recovery and to shorten the recovery time required for incident handling, thus bringing convenience to the public.