Private Building Development
3.07 The principal function of the Buildings Ordinance Office is to consider all plans for private development submitted for approval. Staff requirements to deal with these plans are governed essentially by development trends. Forward planning for the General Divisions of the Buildings Ordinance Office is, therefore, limited to anticipation based on these trends.
3.08 There are, however, other functions of the Buildings Ordinance Office that need to be planned for, but which are not directly related to the rate of current private development. There is, for example, a need for a concerted campaign against the massive amount of illegal building works and unauthorised use of buildings. Also a substantial increase in the seeking out and repairing of defective private drains is obviously desirable and an increase in work on planned surveys to seek out dangerous and potentially dangerous buildings to ensure that proper repair or demolition action is taken merits attention.
3.09 Owing to shortages in the professional staff establishment for building surveyors, structural engineers and civil engineers during the year (i.e. 38%, 36% and 50% respectively at the end of the year) activities in these secondary functions of the Office have been limited, consistent with safety.
Highways
ENGINEERING
3.10
Roads and drainage works are constructed to an overall plan which is developed in three stages :-
(a) the assessment of the present demand and growth rate;
(b) forward projections to a designed year on to the ultimate; and
(c) the formulation of proposals.
3.11 There are 1,056 km. of roads in the territory. The total number of vehicles registered on 31.3.1975 was 191,300, a decrease of 5.2% during the previous twelve months.
3.12 On the average, traffic volume at cordons and screen lines in urban areas in 1974 showed a general downward trend. Out of a total of 15 cordons and screen lines, 10 experienced a decrease in traffic volume varying from between 3% to 12%. Occasional stations, however, registered marginal increases of approximately 4% to 5%. Generally the reductions were greater in Kowloon than in Hong Kong. The highest traffic flow occurred on Prince Edward Road near Choi Hung Road where the average daily traffic for 1974 was 114,170 vehicles per day, a decrease of 6% from the figure for 1973.
3.13 The Department commissioned a firm of consulting engineers (Freeman Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates) in 1967 to make a proposal for the future development of the major road network. Their report on Hong Kong Long Term Road Study was published in 1968. The recommendations contained in this report, together with traffic data from 321 counting stations throughout the territory, are used by the Highways Office to formulate a programme of
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Private Building Development
3.07 The principal function of the Buildings Ordinance Office is to consider all plans for private development submitted for approval. Staff requirements to deal with these plans are governed essentially by development trends. Forward planning for the General Divisions of the Buildings Ordinance Office is, therefore, limited to anticipation based on these trends.
3.08 There are, however, other functions of the Buildings Ordinance Office that need to be planned for, but which are not directly related to the rate of current private development. There is, for example, a need for a concerted campaign against the massive amount of illegal building works and unauthorised use of buildings. Also a substantial increase in the seeking out and repairing of defective private drains is obviously desirable and an increase in work on planned surveys to seek out dangerous and potentially dangerous buildings to ensure that proper repair or demolition action is taken merits attention.
3.09 Owing to shortages in the professional staff establishment for building surveyors, structural engineers and civil engineers during the year (i.e. 38%, 36% and 50% respectively at the end of the year) activities in these secondary functions of the Office have been limited, consistent with safety.
Highways
ENGINEERING
3.10
Roads and drainage works are constructed to an overall plan which is developed in three stages :-
(a)
the assessment of the present demand and growth rate;
(b)
(c)
3.11
forward projections to a designed year on to the ultimate; and the formulation of proposals.
There are 1,056 km. of roads in the territory. The total number of vehicles registered on 31.3.1975 was 191,300, a decrease of 5.2% during the previous twelve months.
3.12
On the average, traffic volume at cordons and screen lines in urban areas in 1974 showed a general downward trend. Out of a total of 15 cordons and screen lines, 10 experienced a decrease in traffic volume varying from between 3% to 12%. Occasional stations, however, registered marginal increases of approximately 4% to 5%. Generally the reductions were greater in Kowloon than in Hong Kong. The highest traffic flow occurred on Prince Edward Road near Choi Hung Road where the average daily traffic for 1974 was 114,170 vehicles per day, a decrease of 6% from the figure for 1973.
3.13 The Department commissioned a firm of consulting engineers (Freeman Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates) in 1967 to make a proposal for the future development of the major road network. Their report on Hong Kong Long Term Road Study was published in 1968. The recommendations contained in this report, together with traffic data from 321 counting stations throughout the territory, are used by the Highways Office to formulate a programme of
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