HK govt departments reviewing green building policies after City University roof collapse

Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying says staff "pay close attention to building safety"

The chief executive said on Tuesday morning that various government departments had got together to review green building policies after the City University roof collapse.

Leung Chun-ying said the government was very concerned about the incident, hence the meeting between the Buildings Department, Architectural Services Department and the Education Bureau.

Three people were injured on Friday, when the roof of CityU’s Tai Ho Multi-Purpose Hall, which had been covered in grass, fell in on the institution’s Kowloon Tong campus.

“We pay close attention to building safety in Hong Kong,” Leung said before his weekly Executive Council meeting.

“It is true that we have a green building policy, but it is most important for the building to meet the government’s safety requirements in its design, construction, use, maintenance and repair.”

Director of the Green Building Council Ivan Ho Man-yiu pointed out that the green roof was unauthorised as the school didn’t apply for a government building permit.

“According to the news reports, the procedure [for CityU to build the green roof] has been reversed,” Ho said.

He said they should have first hired a surveyor to review the possibility of the roof and decide whether the work needed a building permit.

Instead, the school employed a contractor first and endorsed the contractor to look for a surveyor to conduct the review. Ho said that incentivised the contractor to keep looking for a surveyor who would green-light the work.

Former president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Raymond Chan Kin-sek, said it was beyond his comprehension why CityU did not hire a structural engineer for the work.

(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)