LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
Islands District
Development works on other islands continued mainly to improve the living environment of existing residential districts. Reclamation, road and drainage works at the central part and south-western coast of Peng Chau are in progress while reclamation, road and drainage works at north-western Peng Chau began in September. Reclamation, road and drainage works at Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island are also in progress. Construction of the north-eastern riverwall and site formation work adjacent to Lung Tin Estate in Tai O is scheduled for completion in early 2002.
Building Development
The Private Sector
Private building development continued to slow down, though at a much reduced rate. The number of building plan submissions decreased by some five per cent from 13 178 in 1999 to 12 104 in 2000. A total of 642 buildings with a total floor area of three million square metres were completed at a cost of $36.51 billion, compared with 664 buildings with a total floor area of 4.9 million square metres built at a cost of $64.51 billion in 1999.
The number of building sites on which superstructure works started decreased from 184 in 1999 to 162 in 2000, involving total floor areas of 3 919 996 square metres and 3 052 793 square metres respectively. The Cyberport project at Telegraph Bay was among the notable developments approved and under construction.
The Buildings Ordinance was amended to require provision of access facilities for telecommunications and broadcasting services in new commercial, industrial, residential and hotel buildings and facilities for recovery of recyclable materials in new buildings according to their type and size.
The Buildings Department was reorganised along clearer functional lines to enhance efficiency and provide better customer service. A Building Innovation Unit was formed to assist the building industry to identify and adopt designs, technologies and materials that will lead to innovation and excellence in the construction and environmental performance of new buildings.
As an incentive, 'green' facilities, such as energy-saving designs for lighting and ventilation, extra space for trees and greenery at street level, sky gardens on upper floors and balconies will be exempted from gross floor area calculation.
Steps were taken to enhance further the safety and quality of building construction. The site safety supervision plan system, implemented in phases since 1997, has proved effective in improving general site safety conditions. A similar supervision system was introduced in August to enhance supervision of the quality of foundation works and ground investigation works. The Buildings Department is considering further measures to improve quality control for all types of construction works, including a more detailed and less predictable strategy for auditing piling and superstructure
works.
The Buildings Department's largest ever clearance operation was launched in September 1999, targeting 307 buildings with some 14 000 unauthorised building works (UBWs). As a result, some 70 per cent of these unauthorised works were removed within 12 months. This 'blitz' approach induced a high rate of compliance
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