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Cave-in at KRTC site snarls up Kaohsiung traffic

Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp construction teams work frantically to shore up a massive area of subsidence in Kaohsiung yesterday. PHOTO: HUANG CHI-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES

Massive subsidence resulting from water seepage at a Kaohsiung rapid transit construction site snarled up traffic yesterday.

The sinkage occured at the intersection of Chungcheng Road and Tashun Road in Kaohsiung City. The subsidence resulted from the construction of a reservoir well in the area, which suddenly experienced massive water seepage on Sunday night.

The area of the subsidence increased through the morning yesterday, and it took staff from the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) 11 hours to contain the situation.

Yesterday morning, 200 KRTC staff were on the scene of the collapse, and as of yesterday evening an estimated 2,800m3 of earth and concrete had been poured to shore up the damage. In addition, efforts were made to strengthen the surrounding area to prevent an expansion of the problem.

As roads had to be closed during efforts to fill the 50m by 30m crater, which was approximately 10m deep, Kaohsiung's morning rush hour traffic was severely disrupted.

To make matters worse, service on the nearby Linkang railway line was suspended for safety reasons.

According to KRTC general manager Fan Chen-po (范陳柏), this has been the most serious engineering setback in the system's construction.

He said that it did not seem to be the result of human error, and that reconstruction efforts could cost up to NT$500 million (US$15 million).

Fan said that the necessary assessments had been made and that the reservoir was protected by metal boards, but these had been unable to withstand the pressure of the water which flooded the worksite.

Yesterday's accident was the latest for the Kaohsiung MRT project, following a series of construction mishaps that bedeviled the project.

Last November, a Thai worker was killed and another injured in an accident at a construction site for Kaohsiung's MRT project.

Last August, another mishap at the construction site for Shitzuwan Station on the MRT's Orange Line affected an area of 500m2 and led to the evacuation of at least 24 residents from nearby homes.

Another accident also occurred last May after drilling, which resulted in a surge of water and sand rising to the surface.

As a result, the Yancheng MRT station and surrounding structures sank 20cm, leading to the evacuation of more than 100 people from buildings nearby.
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