IT was revealed at a press conference on Nov 1 that the Geotechnical Consultancy Unit (GCU) of the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) emulates and adopts practices of Hong Kong’s Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) on slope safety initiatives.
This was stated by GCU adviser Dr Chin Yaw Ming (pix) who also gave a detailed powerpoint presentation on the roles of the GCU as well as the scope of duties in containing hill site risk and mitigating existing hill site risks.
“The containment of hill site risk is carried out on newly proposed hill site developments by imposing comprehensive requirements on the geotechnical report, and by monitoring of design compliance during the construction stage. This will prevent newly proposed development to be a hill site risk in the future, thus containing the hill site risk,” Chin said.
“The mitigation of existing hill site risk is carried out on existing developments by improving the robustness of existing hill slopes. This improvement to the slopes will result in a reduction of existing hill site risk. In essence, the hill site risk will not go higher with the containment of new development, and the hill site risk will go lower with the improvement of the robustness of existing hill slopes,” he added.
“MBPP had formulated and issued the Safety Guideline for Hill Site Development in 2012, and now has the mechanism for the implementation of the slope safety guideline. All new projects must fulfil the stringent processes from planning, design, construction to maintenance, and must be properly reviewed before approval is given. With proper planning, design, construction and maintenance, hill site developments can be as safe as other developments,” he noted.