A group of local and foreign contractors yesterday urged the government to consider building “intelligent bridges” when reconstructing structures destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in southern Taiwan.
London-based Arup Group Ltd, which is known for its design of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and the “Bird’s Nest” in Beijing, said yesterday it was willing to share its architectural expertise and take part in the reconstruction of Shuangyuan Bridge (雙園大橋), which connects Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, as a modern cable-stayed bridge pre-installed with a monitoring system.
HIGH-TECH
“Such a high-tech bridge, pre-installed with a global positioning system [GPS], will signal an alert to ensure the safety of bridge users,” Arup vice chairman Andrew Chan (陳嘉正) told a media briefing yesterday.
Based on data collected by the GPS and weather conditions, such as forecast rain and wind velocity, the bridge’s administrator can monitor and decide when to close the bridge, he said.
The monitoring system can also provide a health reading of the bridge during routine maintenance, he said.
Chan, however, yesterday said it was premature to estimate the cost of building such a bridge.
Tseng Ching-tsung (曾景琮), vice president of RSEA Engineering Corp (榮民工程公司), said the government should not hold separate bids for the design and construction of the bridge because it creates problems for contractors who may have to contend with an “infeasible design.”
SINGLE BID
Instead, the government should combine the two into a single bid open to design-and-construction teams to accelerate and ensure efficient construction, he said.
Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生), chairman of Taiwan Land Development Corp (台開), which is a local partner of Arup, yesterday expressed interest in working as a coordinator for the bridge project.
However, he said it was too early to say whether all three companies would jointly bid for the project.
He also said the companies’ proposed bridge could be a model for the rebuilding of 70 bridges that collapsed in the wake of the typhoon.
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