XN000022-1995-05-12 — Page 5

3

Question: Does Mr Li do anything that's...

Governor: I repeat what I said. We are trying to establish what the facts are and it would be totally wrong of me to comment on an individual case before we knew all the facts. But the general principles are absolutely plain. The rules are clear and every public servant has to abide by them.

End/Friday, May 12, 1995

Slope safety measures underway

A package of measures recommended following an extensive review of the slope safety programme by the Works Branch are being implemented, the Secretary for Works, Mr James Blake, said today (Friday).

Speaking at a press conference to launch a Slope Maintenance Campaign, Mr Blake said the measures include:

* acceleration of the Landslip Preventive Measures (LPM) Programme;

extension of the LPM Programme to include slopes close to busy roads and footpaths;

* review of the system for classifying slopes according to consequence of

failure;

* promotion of slope maintenance; and

* maintenance of buried services affecting slope safety.

Elaborating on the measures, Mr Blake said acceleration of the LPM Programme was aimed at completing the studies and the necessary upgrading work of 10,000 man-made slopes listed in the 1978 Catalogue by the year 2000, 10 years earlier than the target date.

Additional staff resources had been allocated to the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) and the Buildings Department (BD) for this task. These included 133 new posts in the GEO and 27 in the BD. In addition, the capital cost would be in the order of $1.3 billion.

The LPM Programme had been extended in scope to include the upgrading of slopes close to busy roads and footpaths. A modified priority system was being worked out by the GEO to give the appropriate order of priority for investigation and upgrading.