XN000022-1972-11-06 — Page 4

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Monday, November 6, 1972

SOILS ENGINEERING MUST BE CONSIDERED BY LAND DEVELOPERS

The Director of Public Works, Mr. J.J. Robson, said today it was

evident that, in the light of the June landslides, soils engineers must play

a far greater part in the formation of building sites on hillslopes than in

the past.

He said there is obviously a "pressing need" to apply the latest

techniques and knowledge of soils engineering to the situation in Hong Kong

and to seek a code of practice that will give effective results.

Mr. Robson was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 3rd South-

East Asian Conference on Soils Engineering at the City Hall.

He praised the efforts of the organisers and told the delegates that

"it is essential that your knowledge is made freely available to all civil

engineers, since the pressures of today place increasingly difficult tasks

on the shoulders of the average engineer and now require of him the solution

of problems that were previously only tackled by specialists.'

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The general quality of these problems, he said, have not changed so

very much with the passage of time, though they have gained daily in

sophistication.

Referring to Hong Kong, Mr. Robson said: "Our problem is made acute

by our very high growth rate and the lack of suitable building land."

This situation necessitates the quick construction of high-rise

buildings utilising every inch of space, he added.

"Unless we pause ....