LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
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buildings in the 1959-80 age group, the department commissioned a consultancy study on the steel corrosion and material deterioration of 13 083 buildings, with particular emphasis on their cantilevered structures.
The department received 473 calls under the 24-hour service for emergencies, and attended to 99.8 per cent of the cases within three hours. A further 3 825 reports on potential dangerous building elements were received. Seventeen per cent of the emergency calls and other reports concerned danger from external building elements including projections, appendages, advertising signs and loose finishes. The remaining cases related mainly to water seepage, dangerous slopes and damage by fire. The department stepped up a planned survey to seek out dangerous advertising signs for timely removal. In 1998, 34 378 signs were inspected, resulting in the removal or repair of 752 signs.
Action has been continuing to remove significant new unauthorised building works (UBWs) and those constituting imminent hazards. The task force set up in 1997 to remove all dangerous or abandoned air-conditioning water cooling towers in old industrial areas completed a comprehensive survey of all industrial buildings in Kwun Tong, Kwai Tsing and Tsuen Wan. In 1998, 1218 cooling towers and associated frameworks were removed. Additional resources were made available in October 1998 to step up removal of dangerous unauthorised canopies and appendages over public thoroughfares, at an estimated rate of 2 000 each year.
Attention has also been paid to the removal or misuse of facilities provided for persons with a disability. A comprehensive enforcement operation Operation Check Walk - was launched in September 1997 on selected target buildings. High profile publicity on the enforcement action has been given as a deterrent to other buildings against removal or misuse of the facilities for persons with a disability.
In 1998, 13 163 reports on UBWs were processed, 6 460 items of UBWs removed and 163 prosecution cases were instigated against offenders for erecting UBWs or failing to comply with removal orders. These resulted in 121 convictions with total fines of $1,471,412.
Since the implementation of the voluntary Building Safety Inspection Scheme in April 1997 promoting systematic inspection and preventive maintenance of buildings less than 20 years old, more than 5 900 advisory letters have been sent to 1500 building blocks. Enforcement action has been stepped up since May 1998. Regular inspection programmes have been adjusted to include more dilapidated buildings over 30 years old and canopies and balconies of high-risk construction form with a view to requiring significant defects therein to be investigated or repaired by the owners. In 1998, 291 buildings and 813 canopies and balconies were inspected, resulting in the issue of 752 orders for repair or investigation of buildings and removal of UBWs. The building owners will be encouraged to participate in the scheme voluntarily while seeking compliance with the orders.
The Building Safety Improvement Loan Scheme was launched in August to provide low-interest loans to help building owners undertake maintenance and improvement works. At the end of December, 24 applications from individual flat owners had been received. Four of the applications had been processed and $122,000 in loans granted. Manpower has been strengthened to deal with an increasing number of substandard private slopes identified in the five-year Landslip Preventive Measures Programme. During 1998, 359 statutory orders were served on building owners, requiring slope