TNAG-1729-FCO40-2442-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 212

Substandard concrete in private buildings

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Question No.5

Reply by Hom Graham Barnes, CBE, JP, Secretary for bands & works, to question by Hon. Edward ś.T. Eo, JP, at Legislative Council on 27 April 1983

5. MR. EDWARD HO asked:

Questiani

In view of the discovery of widespread substandard concrete in public housing blocks built in the 1960s, will Government inform this Council whether similar problems existed in buildings of that period in the private sector, and if so, what is being done to ensure that proper checking and necessary repairs are carried out?

SECRETARY FOR LANDS AND WORKS: € sir,

The conditions that led to the substandard

concrete in public housing blocks applied to the whole

building industry at that time. This, combined with the

of lack of proper maintenance e many private blocks has very

likely resulted in a considerable stock of private sector

buildings where the concrete has also deteriorated and is

substandard. In downtown buildings of the sixtlès period

usually concrete deterioration occurs first in kitchen

areas, then in external staircases and in the building

facade. Deterioration of the concrete structure occurs at

a much later stage.

2605

tends to

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To indicate the extent of the problem would

require a systematic survey of the whole post-war building

stock of some 60,000 buildings, but last year 746 orders

were issued by the Buildings Ordinance Office requiring

per cent structural defects to be repaired. About 85 of these

were for post-war buildings., Six post-war high rise

150;

concrete buildings from the 50's were in such poor state,

that demolition was necessary.