bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

THE hillside which collapsed in Aberdeen, trapping at least two people, had not been checked by geotechnical experts, officials admitted yesterday.

Senior geotechnical engineer Alan Watkins said it was excluded from the Government's slopes catalogue as it was not man-made.

'It was part of the natural hillside. There are no registered features on Nam Long Sham Road,' he said.

He said there was a small catalogued slope between Shum Wan Road and the seashore which collapsed when the main landslide occurred.

But he said it was too early to say who was responsible for maintenance or when it was last checked.

But the Democratic Party's Albert Chan Wai-yip criticised the lack of checks and urged the Government to include natural slopes in its landslip prevention programme.

 'The party has been campaigning for three years for the Government to devote more resources to natural slope maintenance. It always takes one or two tragedies to get the Government to act,' he said.

He plans to put further pressure on the Government.

'I don't think you can totally eliminate landslips, but you can reduce the accidents that do occur,' he said.

'No one is looking at natural slopes. The Government is focused on man-made features, but it's time the Government reviewed its [survey] methods.' Setting up a system to monitor natural slopes will cost billions of dollars.

Engineers, including Professor Norbert Morgenstern who carried out an independent investigation into last year's Kwun Lung Lau tragedy, have ruled out as impractical the installation of computer-linked sensors in hillsides.

Mr Watkins said landslides happened with very little warning. By the time engineers were able to react, it was likely the landslide would have already occurred.

About 50 engineers and surveyors from the Geotechnical Engineering Office are investigating the 61 landslides reported around the territory.

The most serious occurred on Hong Kong Island where 44 landslides were reported. Nine roads on the island are completely blocked.

There were also nine landslides in Kowloon with six in Sai Kung and Kwai Chung areas. There was also one on Cheung Chau, and Lamma.

Overall 36 roads are blocked or partially affected.

 Six landslides also occurred behind buildings.



Collapsed hillside unchecked