THE education bureau and the housing and construction bureau recently released new regulations in regards to the construction and management of running tracks at schools.

    They will be implemented for a six-month trial period. According to the new regulations, contractors and supervising units of unqualified tracks will be held responsible, and if liable will carry credibility records with a consequence of being invalid to bid for any other projects over three years.

    Several cases of unqualified tracks were disclosed in the city in the past few years, so the government departments are taking measures to ensure the quality of tracks being constructed at schools.

    The new regulations lay out specific requirements for each process of the construction of tracks including purchasing material, supervision of the project, management, acceptance inspection and so forth.

    The design, construction, inspection and usage of the tracks must meet the city’s standards of construction.

    Once the construction of a track is completed, qualified third-party testing organizations should be invited to conduct inspections of toxic chemical substances under the witness of supervising and construction entities.

    For tracks that cannot be accepted due to substandard quality, methods to deal with problems are provided.

    Last year, students of a number of public schools in Futian and Nanshan districts were reported to have fallen sick caused by toxic emitted from the substandard tracks. (Zhang Qian)