Ahead of the official opening of the Taipei-Ilan Freeway's Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道) scheduled for Friday, the Ministry of Transportation and Commun-ications yesterday gave reporters an opportunity to try out some of the tunnel's emergency facilities.
Officials of the Taiwan Area National Engineering Bureau allowed one journalist to press a fire emergency button by the side of the road inside the tunnel. About 20 seconds later, a recorded message told the reporter to contact the traffic control center in Pinglin (
Fires and phones
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The bureau's director-general, Bane Chiou (邱琳濱), said that pressing the emergency button would set off an alarm at the traffic control center, while automatic systems would try to determine the exact location of the fire.
In addition to emergency buttons and fire hydrants, the tunnel also has toll-free phones that motorists can use to contact the control center.
The telephone number will be listed, along with the distance into the tunnel where the phone is located.
Emergency exits are also numbered, so that motorists will be able to accurately report their location. The tunnel's power supply has been designed to ensure that emergency services are available even in the event of a power failure.
Chiou said that the speed limit in the tunnel would be strictly enforced.
Speed detectors
Motorists will face fines ranging from NT$3,000 (US$93.75) to NT$6,000 if they exceed the 70kph speed limit.
To enforce the policy, the bureau has installed eight speed detectors in the tunnel, six of which are fixed. The remaining two will be able to be moved around.
The media visit at the weekend came amid growing controversy surrounding the tunnel.
The ministry on Tuesday held a final safety drill at the tunnel in which experts were supposed to create simulation exercises to test and evaluate how quickly the staff could react to them. However, the inspectors complained that the exercise fell short of their expectation of an "unscripted" drill.
Chang Wen-cheng (張文城), a bureau section chief, said yesterday that work on the integration of the core mechanical and traffic control systems had been completed, although some minor adjustments needed to be made before Friday's official inauguration.
Short cut
The Hsuehshan Tunnel is part of the 55km-long Taipei-Ilan Freeway, which includes several other tunnels, including the Nangang (南港), Shihding (石碇), Wutu and Pengshan (彭山) tunnels.
At 12.9km, Hsuehshan Tunnel is the longest.
The tunnel will shorten the travel time between Taipei and Ilan from two hours to around 30 minutes.
A brief ceremony will be held on Friday in honor of the workers who died while working on the project.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS