Hong Kong's Worst Construction Company of the Year, an arbitrary award I just made up, was unanimously awarded in 2025 to Prestige Construction & Engineering, for its role in one of the worst tragedies in Hong Kong's history. With 3½ months remaining, we already have a strong front-runner in the race for the worst of 2026: Able Engineering Holdings Ltd. (1627:HK), whose subsidiaries include Able Engineering Company Ltd., a major contractor of public-works projects including public housing, hospitals, swimming pools, and even a maximum security women's prison.

A timeline of events in 2026:

• January 16: After unauthorized alterations were discovered at three Light Public Housing projects, including cut bolts and enlarged holes in steel plates, the Hong Kong government suspends Able Engineering Company Ltd. for one year from bidding for public works contracts, citing possible serious negligence or misconduct. At the time, Able was already suspended from bidding for Buildings-category public works because of poor performance on the Queen Mary Hospital redevelopment contract, a project where a 58-year-old worker had died in a lift-shaft accident the previous July. From January 16 to the end of the month, its shares plunged 32%.

• August 15: Ming Pao reports that 24 of the 28 lifts at the new wing of Queen Mary Hospital (pictured above) were unreliable.

The main contractor was Paul Y.-Able Joint Venture, of which Able had a 30% interest.

• August 16: TVB reported that the Development Bureau was consider extending the 1-year suspension of Able Engineering's eligibility to tender for public works or possibly even removing it from the approved contractors list.

• September 8: Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn tells reporters that the government has identified the main engineering problems at Queen Mary Hospital, which include poorly installed and damaged lift components, and — eek! — "dimensional deviations in some lift shafts", leaving insufficient clearance for the lifts to run smoothly.

• September 12 (the fallout): The SCMP reported that the chief project manager at the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) who oversaw the Queen Mary Hospital project "was asked to resign and left her post last month to take responsibility for the defects." According to a government insider, "[Li Pak-yee] was advised by the Architectural Services Department to resign. Such a departure is extremely rare within the civil service framework." The report was quickly denied by ArchSD later that night.

• Also September 12: Routine testing at a public housing project in Tung Chung found that concrete used in parts of three housing blocks required further evaluation. The Housing Authority told the main contractor — you guessed it, Able Engineering — to submit a detailed report and repair plan, and ordered the contractor to replace the concrete supplier. The Housing Authority "warned that if an investigation confirmed any fault by the contractor, its performance would be penalised under official scoring mechanisms, directly affecting future tendering opportunities."

So a veritable list of quality-control problems involving a single company in a two-year period in a city that is not exactly known for its safety record. The Development Bureau is now expected to complete its review of the Queen Mary Hospital snafu and announce follow-up arrangements in October. Is Able Engineering Holdings headed for the exit? Perhaps not, it reported a modest HK$288 million in profit from revenues of over HK$9 billion in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2026. Through another subsidiary, it won a 50-year land tender in Tung Chung for HK$1.627 billion in May that will be used for private residential housing. It might be shut out from bidding on new public works, but it hasn't been banned from working on private projects... yet.