ENG-2001 — Page 297

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

promotional booklets and pamphlets, attending media interviews and public seminars, mounting displays at popular shopping centres, and organising slope safety talks in secondary schools. TV broadcasting of Announcements in the Public Interest continues on the issues of private slope maintenance, personal precautionary measures while landslip warnings are in force, and the problems of unauthorised cultivation on slopes. A training video and a Model Slope Maintenance Plan for promulgating the importance of slope maintenance have been produced and distributed to private slope owners and other interested parties. An Internet training course on private slope maintenance was launched at the end of the year. To further enhance public education on slope safety, an independent review of the existing public education initiatives has been completed and a long-term strategy formulated. The Community Advisory Unit continues to provide useful advice to private slope owners to help them maintain and improve their slopes.

During the year, the GEO completed a review of the origin, distribution and significance of weak kaolin layers in weathered rock in Hong Kong, which affect slope stability. The findings were documented in a report for dissemination to geotechnical practitioners.

The Geotechnical Information Unit in the Civil Engineering Library houses the largest collection of geotechnical data in Hong Kong. It is open to the public, and served more than 34 000 users during 2001.

The GEO also provides material testing and ground investigation services to support public works projects. The Public Works Laboratories (PWL) operated by the office (consisting of the Public Works Central Laboratory at Kowloon Bay and six Public Works Regional Laboratories in various parts of Hong Kong) conduct construction material and calibration tests. During the year, some 490 000 tests were carried out through the PWL under the GEO's ground investigation term contracts, and the length of soil and rock drilled totalled 15 400 metres.

The GEO continued to provide specialist geotechnical advisory services to government departments to help them achieve a high standard of geotechnical work as well as assisting them to identify value-for-money and sustainable solutions, including the provision of ad hoc geotechnical advice and the conducting of feasibility studies, detailed investigations, design and construction supervision for a wide range of public works projects. The works projects handled by the office during the year included road widening and slope works at Lin Tak Road, Lam Tin; road widening and mitigation of natural terrain landslides at Tsing Yi North Coastal Road; boulder and slope stabilisation works at Victoria Road, Kennedy Town; and foundation improvement works for reclamation and old seawall restoration in Tai O. The Slope Maintenance Audit Section of the GEO continues to assist maintenance departments to improve their performance in discharging their slope maintenance responsibilities. First-round audits of government slope maintenance works were completed at the end of 2000 and the second-round audits commenced in January.

Fill Supply and Mud Disposal

The Marine Fill Committee (MFC) is responsible to the Secretary for Works for identifying and managing the supply of marine fill resources for development projects, and for the provision and management of disposal facilities for dredged sediments. The Public Fill Committee (PFC) is responsible to the Secretary for the

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