Report No. : GEO Report No. 77

Report Title : Report on the Landslide at Ten Thousand Buddhas' Monastery of 2 July 1997 (1998), 96 p. (Bilingual)

Author : Halcrow Asia Partnership Ltd.

Abstract

On 2 July 1997, a landslide occurred at a slope above Ten Thousand Buddhas' Monastery, Shatin, and resulted in one fatality and one slight injury. The landslide involved the sudden collapse of part of registered cut Slope No. 7SW-B/C116 and part of the hillside above. A comprehensive investigation into the landslide was carried out for the Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) during the period July 1997 to February 1998 by GEO's landslide investigation consultants, Halcrow Asia Partnership Ltd. (HAP) with input and assistance from the GEO. This investigation included review of documentary information, analysis of rainfall records, interviews with witnesses to the landslide, site survey, ground investigation, theoretical stability analyses and diagnosis of the causes of failure.

The investigation concluded that the 1997 landslide at the Ten Thousand Buddhas' Monastery was probably caused by elevated water pressure along adversely orientated discontinuities in the weathered granite of the slope, following the heavy rainfall that immediately preceded the failure. A lack of design and maintenance of the cut slope prior to the failure had probably resulted in local progressive slope deterioration.

Details of the investigation and its findings are given in this report on the landslide.

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