The Housing Authority is to restrict subcontracting of piling work and tighten monitoring of subcontractors as part of building quality reforms prompted by a spate of scandals at authority sites.
The measures, endorsed by the authority's building committee yesterday, seek to impose new controls in contracts to limit the extent of subcontracting piling works.
From October, a subcontractor awarded piling work by the main contractor can no longer subcontract out this work to others. And for one particular type of pile, the main contractor can only use one subcontractor under the new measures.
At present, the authority's piling works have to be carried out by contractors from its approved list or a list supplied by the Works Bureau. While subcontracting part of the work is allowed, there is no substantial restriction on subletting or further subcontracting work.
The authority's reforms follow a spate of defective piling scandals. At Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Tin, two home-ownership scheme blocks built up to 34-storeys will have to be demolished because of substandard foundation work. The estimated cost of this is $250 million.
The piling contractor, Zen Pacific, has been banned from all authority piling and demolition projects.