Highway Slope Manual

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Plate 1.8 Steep Natural Terrain along the North Lantau Expressway near Tung
Chung
1.3 HIGHWAY SLOPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
To ensure that the safety of slopes is adequately managed and their stability
maintained, road owners should set up appropriate slope management systems commensurate
with the number of slopes and the size of the slope-related problems (e.g. the potential risk to
life and property and the socio-economic impact associated with disruption to traffic in the
event of landslides) that they have to manage. A range of options is illustrated in Figure 1.1.
The Highways Department (HyD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
(SAR), being responsible for the maintenance of a large number of highway slopes in Hong
Kong, has established a comprehensive slope management system. A brief description of
HyD’s system is given in Appendix A.
Apart from HyD, there are others who are responsible for the maintenance of roadside
slopes. These include the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department,
Architectural Services Department, Drainage Services Department, Hospital Authority,
Housing Authority, Water Supplies Department, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation,
Mass Transit Railway Corporation, universities and private parties. An appropriate slope
management system should be set up by each party. In some cases, e.g. a private lot with
only a few slopes affecting a lightly used road, a simple slope management system may be
adequate.