XN000022-1973-06-20 — Page 17

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Wednesday, June 20, 1973.

In this regard, he proposed that all site formation works of

appreciable magnitude should require a qualified civil engineer for their

proper design and formation.

He therefore welcomed and supported a proposal by the Director

of Public Works for the creation of a panel of expert civil engineers who

were conversant with the property, characteristics and mechanics of soils.

Referring to the Po Shan Road landslide, Mr. Szeto said "negligence"

could be seen in the inexplicable manner in which the Building Authority

approved the very steep slope cutting at the rear of inland lot 2260 "with

complete disregard of the nature of the soil."

Since approval for an 80.5 degree cut slope was normally only given

to solid rock formation, it could be assumed that in this case no prior

inspection by an engineer had been made to determine the nature of the soil.

"The officer approving the plans might have been misled intentionally

by the authorised architect," he said. "But to approve plans of such important

nature without requiring a thorough site investigation and in such a casual

manner is incompetent, negligent and irresponsible to say the least."

Ample evidence of procrastination was also provided in the commission's

report, anid Mr. Szeto and he cited a number of dangerous situations that had

developed in the area which, in his opinion, should have served as a warning

of imminent disaster.

As regards the Sau Mau Ping landslide tragedy, Mr. Szeto noted that

the commission contributed the cause to the unusually long and intense rain-

storm and that human error had not been a contributory factor.

"However, the