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SCMP Reporter

FATAL accidents have plagued the construction industry in recent months and building surveyors from the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) are at the forefront of the battle to make sites safer.

  The building surveyor is very much a hands-on inspector, checking building techniques to ensure adherence to quality guidelines.

  Often the building surveyor will act as a project manager for a construction. On restrictions imposed by Crown Lease, Town Plans and the Building Ordinance, the surveyor will advise on any foreseeable construction difficulties.

      Acting as project manager, the building surveyor is responsible for giving advice on the appointment of consultants, preparing budgets and programmes for approval, approving tenderers and contract conditions and, during the course of the work, general co-ordination.

    The government building surveyor, under the office of the Building Authority, has the responsibility of controlling all buildings which come under the Buildings Ordinance.

  The role is to scrutinise development plans and exercise control during each stage of a development, including demolition and construction.

  Government building surveyors carried out inspections of demolition sites last month following the Nathan Road tragedy in which a wall collapsed and fell to the pavement, killing five people.

  This policing aspect of the building surveyor is firmly adhered to by the HKIS.

  Following the Nathan Road tragedy, the building surveyors' branch of the institute issued a three-point plan to improve safety on demolition sites.

  This consisted of calls for demolition firms to be registered, to use only approved contractors and for improvement in the training of demolition workers to ensure a uniform level of competence.

  Raymond Cheng, chairman of the building surveyors group on the HKIS General Council, said the rules governing demolition needed to be tightened.

  'During construction of new buildings an authorised person, usually a senior engineer, architect or surveyor, has to be present at all times, but during demolition the regulations stipulate that the authorised person has to make periodic visits,' Mr Cheng said.

  'These visits can be as infrequent as once a week. And that is not enough.This is something we are pushing to see changed.

  'With such a hazardous operation as demolition, the visits should be at least daily. We would also like to see an improvement in the standard of hoardings used to surround sites.'   The building surveyors are also involved in the HKIS push to introduce a domestic surveying scheme to conduct studies on the quality of flats before they are purchased.

  The idea is to safeguard the purchaser and the lender. Because home surveys are a rarity, they can lead to a reluctance from banks to give mortgages on older properties.

  The government building surveyor and his private counterpart are involved in controlling illegal structures, the change of use in buildings and the control of dangerous and dilapidated buildings.

  The building surveyor in the Architectural Services Department and the Housing Department is responsible for the maintenance and improvement to government and Housing Authority property.

  Here the building surveyor develops maintenance strategies, investigates possible construction defects and designs and implements improvements.

  The professional building surveyor is trained to have a broad knowledge of construction techniques, building economics and building law. These skills are used to ensure quality construction.



Studies of tragedies help ensure more safety