The earth is sinking under the nation’s high-speed rail line, New Public Construction Commission (PCC) Minister Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said yesterday, warning that it could become inoperable in 10 years if nothing is done.
The soil has subsided because of excessive draining of ground water on a stretch of the line in Yunlin County and the limit of what is considered safe is fast approaching, Lee said.
“The high-speed rail can safely operate for a maximum of 10 years if the problem is kept under control,” Lee said.
“However, the area affected has expanded this year because of the water shortage problem. With more ground water being lost, 10 years has become a conservative estimate,” added Lee, who on Monday traveled to Yunlin with other government officials to inspect the high-speed rail line.
The Executive Yuan has scheduled a cross-departmental meeting on Friday to discuss the subsidence problem in Yunlin County.
Lee told a press conference yesterday that areas along the high-speed rail line have suffered the worst of the subsidence problem and while the Bureau of High Speed Rail — the agency oversees the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp's operator of the 345km line that runs the length of the nation’s western corridor — has managed to keep the difference in the angle of the line’s piers under the safety limit, the problem must be solved within 10 years or the rail system will be facing a major crisis.
Approximately 1,400km2 in Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi counties also have the same problems, about a 10th of the plains area on the west coast, he added.
Not only will the subsidence create safety issues on the high-speed rail line, but it will also impact on food supply and drainage if the problem is not addressed immediately, Lee said.
Lee said the government is considering imposing weight controls on about 3km of the high-speed rail line in Yunlin County as excessive weight could cause the land to subside further. The zones near the entrance to the Central Science Park also reportedly have problems with subsidence, he said.
The Central Science Park Administration said that it does not draw on ground water and the government needs to find out what is causing the land in these areas to subside, he said.
When asked if the problem meant the government would not build a high-speed rail station in Yunlin, Lee said that was a separate matter.
“The station would be useless if the high-speed rail line is unsafe,” Lee said. “If the station is to be built, we have to take into consideration the materials used for its construction and the weight of the buildings.”
At a separate setting yesterday, Chang Kuang-chih (張廣智), director of the Water Resources Agency’s hydrology division, said Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城) suffered the worst subsidence in 2001, with the average subsidence standing at 17.6cm, while last year the worst effects were felt in Chang-hua County’s Sijhou Township (溪州) and Yunlin County’s Tuku Township (土庫), where the average was 6.4cm.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia and AFP
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS