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Contest Details

Theme

The Highways Department cordially invites members of the public to take photographs at designated locations with streetscape enhancement across the 18 districts, with different themes and design styles through which one can appreciate Hong Kong's community streetscape from different angles, while adopting celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China as the theme.

Groups of Entry

Student Group – Full-time primary and secondary students in Hong Kong
Open Group – Hong Kong residents

Each participant may join the contest in only one group.

How to Enter

Participant should complete the Entry Form and submit it together with no more than three entries to 75A_photocontest@hyd.gov.hk by email during the period of 1 October to 31 October 2024 (23:59:59 Hong Kong Time).

Submission Guidelines

Shooting location:	One of the designated locations of photo contest
Theme:	Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China ("75A")
Entry title:	No more than 20 words
File format:	Must be saved in JPEG, JPG or PNG format
File size:	Not exceeding 10 MB recommended
Resolution:	At least 1,600 pixels (landscape or portrait mode) recommended

Demo Photos:

Participants may directly take photos of the relevant structures incorporated with the following signs related to "75A".

• Example 1
  
  
• Example 2
  
  
• Example 3
  
  

Participants may also use their creative idea by preparing and incorporating their own elements/props related to "75A" when taking a photo.

• Example 4
  
  
• Example 5
  
  
• Example 6
  
  

Shooting Locations

21 Designated Locations of Photo Contest

(Please click the photos below to obtain more information)

During the contest period, participants can see the following sign displayed at prominent positions:

Judging Criteria

Judging Method

The Organiser will first make a shortlist from all entries of each group according to the judging criteria comprising relevance to the theme, creativity, visual aesthetics and shooting techniques. The shortlisted entries from each group will be submitted to the judging panel for final adjudication so as to select one Champion, one First Runner-up, one Second Runner-up and seven Merit Award winners for each group.

Announcement of Results

The results will be announced on this contest webpage tentatively in December 2024. All awardees will be notified separately on matters related to the award presentation ceremony and prizes.

Prizes

Prize Details

Each group of entry will have one Champion, one First Runner-up, one Second Runner-up and seven Merit Award winners.

Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions of Contest

1. Participants should enrol as an individual and complete the entry form with true and accurate personal particulars, and submit the completed form together with the entries to the designated email address of the contest by email.  All entries submitted by post will not be accepted.
2. Each participant may join the contest in only one group according to eligibility. Participants who are aged below 18 on the last day of the contest period must have obtained consent from their parent or guardian before joining the contest.
3. Each participant may submit no more than three entries.  Only the first three entries will be accepted if the number of submissions is more than three by the same participant.  Each awardee will receive only one prize at most.
4. The subject of all entries must be relevant to the theme of the contest, and accompanied by an entry title of no more than 20 words.  Individual awardees will be invited to provide a description of their entry of no more than 100 words (excluding punctuation marks).
5. Participants may use a digital camera or smartphone to take photos.  Each photo is recommended to have a file size not exceeding 10 megabytes (MB) and a resolution of at least 1,600 pixels wide (in landscape mode) or 1,600 pixels tall (in portrait mode).  All entries must be saved in JPEG, JPG or PNG format.
6. Participants can make minor modifications to the works, such as cropping, burning, dodging, or colour correction.  However, any digital editing technique that adds or removes any objects from the image is not allowed for the entries.
7. Participants must not add lines, watermarks or patterns to the entries.
8. Participants must retain the original digital file to prove that they are the original authors of their submissions.  The Organiser may require participants to provide the original file (contains EXIF data) and reserves the right to disqualify participants who fail to provide the proof.
9. All entries must be the participants' original works which have not been published, sold or submitted to other contests.
10. Participants must obtain lawful authority from persons appearing in the entries for submitting to the designated email address of the contest, uploading to relevant websites and social media platforms or using on other occasions for display, promotion or relevant non-profit-making purposes.
11. Participants must ensure that all information submitted is true and accurate, and must not impersonate any third party. Awardees should present proof of their personal identity to verify their eligibility during collection of prizes. Awardees who are aged below 18 on the last day of the contest period must submit their parent's or guardian's consent form before collecting prizes.
12. Participants must guarantee that their entries do not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, portrait rights, rights of privacy/publicity or intellectual property rights of any person or entity, and that no other party has any right, title, claim, or interest in the entries, nor do the entries violate any applicable law.
13. Entries must not contain obscene, violent, pornographic, defamatory, indecent, personal attack, political, religious, insulting elements, or any controversial and inappropriate content; make use of the name(s), product(s) or service(s) of any companies or entities; make use of the trade mark(s), logo(s), branding, product(s) or promotional service(s) of third party and violate laws of Hong Kong.  Otherwise, the Organiser reserves the right to disqualify the entry, and the participant will be held accountable legally.
14. The Organiser assumes no responsibility for any copyright/legal dispute of the entries.  All the copyright/legal dispute is the sole responsibility of the participant.
15. Decisions of the judging panel are final and binding.  Any request of appeal or objection is not accepted by the Organiser.
16. At the time of submission, participants accept that the Organiser shall own the copyright of all shortlisted and award-winning entries.  Participants agree and accept that the Organiser may publish and publicly display the entries in any format, and produce them in any form, such as being publicly displayed or published in public exhibitions, the Organiser's website, social networking websites or publications.  There is no need for the Organiser to notify participants or pay any copyright fees to participants.
17. Upon submission of entries, participants shall be deemed to have agreed to and abide by all the terms and conditions of the contest. The Organiser reserves the right to revise the terms and conditions, contents and arrangements of the contest at any time without prior notice. Participants should carefully read all the terms and conditions before submitting their entries. If participants fail to abide by the terms and conditions of the contest, the Organiser reserves the right to disqualify them from the contest.
18. The Organiser reserves the right to substitute any prize with another prize at any time without prior notice.  All gift vouchers cannot be exchanged for cash and shall be used at the designated stores subject to the terms and conditions specified by the designated stores.  The Organiser assumes no responsibility for the terms and conditions of the gift vouchers and the quality of the products.  After collection of prizes by the awardees, the Organiser shall not compensate for any lost, damaged or stolen prizes.
19. The participants' personal data collected will be used only for relevant purposes such as handling contest matters and contacting the awardees.  The personal data provided by participants will be destroyed within 6 months after the award of prizes, excluding the awardees' names which will be made public during the announcement of contest results.
20. If there is any ambiguity or inconsistency between the terms and conditions of the contest in Chinese and English versions, the Chinese version shall prevail.

Enquiries

For enquiries, please email to 75A_photocontest@hyd.gov.hk.

Facts about HyD

Streetscape enhancement and greening work

The Highways Department (HyD) has been striving to enhance the streetscape in recent years. Apart from the 21 beautified locations selected for this photo contest, the HyD has introduced distinguishing thematic designs to dozens of highway structures in various districts across the territory, adding uniqueness to local districts. The HyD has also introduced chromatic designs to numerous other highway structures, harmonising them with the ambience of the surrounding environment. Some designs have been included in the Streetazine. Please enjoy!

You may also take a journey with the designers to appreciate various exquisite works on site and understand the design concepts behind through the following videos:

Greening work is an inseparable part of streetscape enhancement. The HyD is implementing the "Succeed Sustain Slopescape: Enhancement Programme of Vegetated Slopes" to replace senescent Acacia trees on roadside slopes and adjacent to expressways under its purview with a variety of native or localised plants with high ecological values in phases systematically.  This will enhance the variety of roadside scenery, protect and enrich biodiversity in urban areas, promote sustainable tree management and create a lively environment, while safeguarding the safety of road users at the same time.

The HyD introduced the above two projects in the Hong Kong Flower Show 2024 by adopting "Enchanted Journey - Joyful Inheritance" as the exhibition theme. Visitors travelled through tunnels and roads with blossoming flowers to explore the road facilities closely related to them and experience the convenience brought by the road network and enjoy the fun of travelling through it. The HyD has also won the Grand Award for Design Excellence under the category of Local Outdoor Landscape Display in this show, which fully demonstrates the HyD's efforts in beautifying the streets of Hong Kong. You may watch the introductory video to know the design features of the booth. The HyD also won the same award with the "Joyful Funfair" exhibition theme in the Hong Kong Flower Show 2023. Do watch the event video to perceive the warmth and happiness brought by the exhibition.

Paving the way for all walks of life

While enhancing the streetscape, the HyD is also pressing ahead the implementation of various transport infrastructure projects, proactively applying innovative technologies to enhance the efficiency and quality of construction and maintenance of public road facilities, rapidly responding to public road emergencies during inclement weather, so as to provide more convenient and comfortable travel experience and continuously improve the quality of life of the public. Apart from producing a video "Paving the way for all walks of life" to briefly introduce the work of the department, the HyD will also highlight part of the work which is closely related to the daily commutes of the public in the following.

Implementation of major road works projects and construction of community road facilities

The HyD is responsible for the implementation of various major road works projects, including the Central Kowloon Route (CKR) which is under construction. Upon the commissioning of the CKR, which connects West Kowloon with Kowloon Bay and Kai Tak Development Area, the journey time from Yau Ma Tei Interchange to Kai Tak Interchange during peak hours will be significantly reduced from about 30 minutes to about five minutes.

The Tuen Mun - Chek Lap Kok Link (TM-CLKL) commissioned in recent years also provides the most direct route between Northwest New Territories and Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macao Bridge (HZMB), the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and North Lantau while serving as an alternative route to the HKIA. Since the commissioning of Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Tunnel in end-2020, the journey time from Tuen Mun South to the Hong Kong Port of HZMB and the HKIA has been significantly reduced from about 30 minutes to about 10 minutes. This project has applied various advanced technologies and received multiple awards. To learn the convenience to the commuting public brought by the TM-CLKL or further understand the advanced technologies adopted in the project, please view the following videos:

In addition to the construction of new roads, the HyD constructs and installs pedestrian facilities, such as footbridges, lifts and escalator links, at some hillside areas with regard to actual conditions and cost-effectiveness to enhance the accessibility of these areas. For instance, the Lift and Pedestrian Walkway System between Tai Wo Hau Road and Wo Tong Tsui Street, Kwai Chung is the first public inclined lift system in the territory, bringing convenience to the residents of Kwai Chung Estate.

Repair and maintenance of public road facilities

The HyD regularly inspects public road facilities under its purview, and arranges necessary repair and maintenance works, such as repairing potholes on roads, repaving road surfaces, replacing damaged traffic signs and street furniture, etc.. The HyD also proactively enhances the quality of the maintenance of public road lighting facilities. For instance, the HyD has introduced the Smart Lighting Management System since 2017 to monitor the healthiness of the public lighting system through real-time measurements of the operating parameters of each lighting point, thus facilitating timely fault investigation and rectification. The HyD has been adopting different technologies to increase the operational efficiency of the lighting system, including power control using photocell and astro timer and the use of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights, while erecting decorative lighting and carrying out lamppost beautification work at designated locations to complement and beautify the environment nearby.

Research and development and application of innovative technologies

To continuously provide quality road maintenance services, the HyD has been proactively applying innovations and advanced surveying technologies, including Mobile Laser Scanning and Imagery System, Terrestrial Laser Scanner, artificial intelligence system, etc. to automatically identify road cracks and other defects through analysing photos of road surfaces and detailed data collected during road inspections. The HyD also uses small unmanned aircrafts to survey the conditions of highway structures (including bridges, internal structure of tunnels, etc.) which are difficult to reach to enhance the efficiency and safety of inspection work. These technologies can facilitate the work on planning, design, construction and maintenance of road infrastructures, thus enabling the HyD's staff members to conduct road inspections and maintenance works in a more efficient and precise manner.

The HyD also proactively promotes research and development work related to road works. For example, the HyD, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has successfully developed a new formula for more durable bituminous paving material, which is suitable for the environment and weather of Hong Kong, with a view to reducing the frequency of road repair works. To blend in the idea of fully utilising materials in giving new lives to waste rubber tyres and glass bottles, the HyD is conducting a research on adding crumb rubber into the traditional bituminous pavement materials to increase the durability of roads, while adopting eco-pavers with increasing content of recycled glass cullet in paving footpaths, so as to make road maintenance work more environmentally friendly.

Handling of public road emergencies during inclement weather

To cope with inclement weather, the Emergency Control Centres of the HyD conduct drills to simulate the inspection of major roads in the territory and the handling of road emergencies during typhoons. This could enable staff members of the department and contractors to familiarise themselves with the relevant work procedures and points to note in emergency recovery works of road facilities before the typhoon and rainy season. The HyD also continuously implements preventive measures on an ongoing basis to enhance its capability in coping with inclement weather. These measures include instructing the contractors to inspect in advance the roads and structures with a higher risk of flooding and the pumping facilities in road tunnels or pedestrian subways under its purview; conducting annual routine maintenance inspections of roadside slopes, and carrying out protective maintenance and stabilisation works for slopes and retaining walls with higher risks; conducting regular vegetation maintenance operations for its roadside slopes and expressways such as pruning overgrown vegetation and problematic trees, and completing the tree risk assessments and the corresponding mitigation measures before the onset of the typhoon and rainy season in order to enhance the resilience to inclement weather.

The severe rainstorms on September 8, 2023 caused landslides of different scales at various locations across the territory, resulting in road blockages. The HyD together with relevant departments raced against time in carrying out emergency repair works with a view to re-opening the obstructed roads as soon as possible and minimising the impact on the public commuting. The following are two of the highly challenging emergency repair works:

Shek O Road

A section of carriageway at Shek O Road near Lan Nai Wan subsided with one of the traffic lanes seriously damaged due to landslides, leading to full closure of traffic lanes for emergency repairs. Upon completion of the emergency repair works, one traffic lane was reopened the following night (September 9, 2023). The HyD subsequently commenced the emergency slope stabilisation works, and has also completed the drainage improvement works including the provision of an additional drainage channel, improvement works of adjacent catchpits and drainage clearance works to further strengthen the drainage capacity of the road concerned against inclement weather, thereby enhancing the safety of carriageway. Two-lane traffic arrangement was fully resumed at the affected road section on February 29, 2024. For further details of the emergency repair and improvement works for this incident, please view this video.

Yiu Hing Road

A severe landslide occurred on a natural slope above Yiu Hing Road in Shau Kei Wan, resulting in the temporary full closure of the section of the carriageway fronting Yiu Ming House of Yiu Tung Estate. After the completion of the first phase of the slope repair works by the HyD, which were of high complexity and risk, a traffic lane of the section of Yiu Hing Road was reopened for one-way westbound traffic on March 23, 2024. The HyD then continued to reinforce the slope with shotcrete and stabilise the isolated boulders with the installation of rock dowels. The section of Yiu Hing Road concerned was reopened on June 30, 2024 for full resumption of two-way traffic along the entire road.

To learn more about the latest news of the work of the HyD, please keep an eye on the HyD's Facebook page, Instagram account and YouTube channel!

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