Highway Slope Manual

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APPENDIX A
THE SLOPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF THE HIGHWAYS DEPARTMENT OF
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE HONG KONG SAR
The Highways Department (HyD) is responsible for the maintenance of most highway
slopes in Hong Kong. A total of about 15 200 highway slope features were identified in the
establishment of a Roadside Slope Inventory in 1997 by the HyD. About 12 500 of these
features are under the HyD's maintenance responsibility, of which about 10 000 are sizeable
features (c.f. a total of about 54 000 sizeable features registered in the New Slope Catalogue
by GEO (Lam et al, 1998)).
The District and Maintenance Sections of the HyD engage maintenance term
contractors to undertake all routine maintenance of their slopes, preventive maintenance and
upgrading of substandard slopes using prescriptive measures, repairs to leaking drains and
urgent repairs to failed slopes. Their staff also attend to slope failures affecting roads as part
of the HyD's emergency service (see Appendix E).
A Geotechnical Advisory Unit (GAU) comprising professional geotechnical engineers
was set up in the Headquarters of the HyD in 1998. It provides in-house geotechnical advice
on slope maintenance, undertakes design of preventive maintenance and prescriptive measures
for slopes, and co-ordinates and advises on matters related to slopes. It also co-ordinates the
selection of substandard slopes maintained by the HyD for inclusion in the Landslip
Preventive Measures (LPM) Programme managed by the GEO and the formulation of a slope
improvement programme to be implemented by the HyD to supplement the LPM Programme.
A Slope Maintenance Committee, chaired by the Assistant Director/ Headquarters with
representatives from the District and Maintenance Sections and GAU as members, was also
set up in 1998. The Committee sets policy and establishes procedures for slope maintenance
and improvement, including routine maintenance, preventive maintenance, and upgrading of
slopes where appropriate. It also monitors the programme of maintenance actions and
obtains and allocates resources for it.
The Landscape Unit of the HyD provides landscape advice on slope-related works.
The policy and procedures on slope maintenance and improvement, and the
responsibilities of various parties involved in the HyD are documented in a Slope
Maintenance Plan which is audited by the GEO.
REFERENCE
Lam, C.C.L., Mak, S.H. & Wong, A.H.T. (1998). A new slope catalogue for Hong Kong.
Proceedings of the Annual Seminar on Slope Engineering in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
A.A. Balkema Publishers, Rotterdam, pp 235-242.