1976-1977 — Page 34

3.08

There are, however, other functions of the Buildings Ordinance Office which should be planned for, but which are not directly related to the rate of current private development. For example it would be desirable to increase the work on planned surveys in those areas of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories which still contain a considerable number of dilapidated buildings, to seek out those which are dangerous or potentially dangerous. Planned surveys are also required to locate buildings with defective private drains, which in some districts now present a fairly serious health hazard. For the last decade, the pro- fessional staff establishment of this Office has been substantially under strength, this year being no exception, and therefore activities in these secondary but important functions of the Office have been limited, albeit consistent with a reasonable measure of safety.

3.09

However, as a result of two recruitment campaigns in early 1977 about 50 professional officers will fill existing vacancies and go a long way towards staffing the two new divisions mentioned above.

ENGINEERING

Highways

3.10

The construction of roads and drainage works is in accordance with an overall plan, which is continually being monitored and refined as conditions change but which is basically developed in three stages :

(i)

the assessment of the present traffic demand and growth rate;

(ii) forward projections to a design year and beyond; and

(iii) the formulation of proposals for projects and priorities.

3.11

There are now 1,088 km of roads and streets in Hong Kong and with 194,582 registered vehicles the ratio of vehicles to road kilometre is 179. The number of vehicles registered on 31.3.77 increased by 3.5% over the previous year and reverses the trend of falling registrations evident over the preceding two years. Of the 15 cordon and screen lines used in the Traffic Census all indicated an increase in average daily traffic over the preceding year. The highest traffic volume recorded was, as usual, on Prince Edward Road near Choi Hung Road where the average daily traffic figure was 121,970, an increase of 11.4% over the previous

year.

3.12

An investigation of the future development of the major road network was commissioned in 1967 and the report on the Hong Kong Long Term Road Study was published in 1968. Some five years later, transport- ation and traffic consultants were commissioned to study the broader aspects of the future transportation options in the territory; the study

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