The Taipei City Government yesterday said it had reported Farglory Group (遠雄集團) and two architects overseeing the construction of the Taipei Dome to its disciplinary committees, and that it had upheld a punishment imposed on Farglory in May to halt the construction of the arena after the city government’s appeal review committee last month rejected an appeal by the group.
Taipei Department of Urban Development Commissioner Lin Jou-min (林洲民) made the announcements prior to a protest by a group of employees of companies involved in the Dome’s construction, who said the city government’s ordering the project to be halted infringed on their right to work.
Citing Article 18 of the Architects Act (建築師法), Lin said that the department had reported the architect overseeing the construction, Stan Lo (羅興華), and his predecessor, Hsu Shao-yu (徐少游), to the city’s Disciplinary Committee for Architects over professional negligence in overseeing the construction.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, Farglory and project co-contractor Obayashi Corp had been reported to the city’s Construction Enterprise Review Committee over their failure to carry out work according to the construction plan, alleged breaches of Article 26 and Article 35 of the Construction Industry Act (營造業法), Lin said.
Lin said the two architects could face punishments ranging from a warning, demerits or having their licence suspended for between two months and two years, to their licenses being revoked or invalidated.
Possible punishments that the construction companies and their specialists face include a warning and a suspension of their operations for between three months and one year, he said.
However, depending on the committees’ conclusions, the individuals and firms might not be punished, he added.
He said that although previous structural concerns surrounding the Dome, including the stability of its foundations and a purported “upward buoyancy force” caused by the suspended construction are under control, the project must meet four requirements before construction can be resumed.
First and foremost, it must pass a review administered by the Taiwan Architecture and Building Center, which would assess whether the project complies with a set of provisions, Lin said.
Then, it would have to pass an environmental impact assessment, an urban design review and, finally, a review of its construction licenses, he added.
Asked to comment on the protesters, Lin said that while the Taipei City Government is concerned about them, agreements between their companies and Farglory was not a matter the city government can intervene in.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) called on Farglory to take a proactive stance on resolving public safety issues concerning the Taipei Dome, rather than threatening to file lawsuits.
Ko said that compared with safety concerns, he is less worried about the nominal royalties to be paid by Farglory should the Dome become operational, adding: “What good does money do if people are dead?”
Under a contract inked between then-Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Farglory, royalty payments required from the firm were set at zero to 1 percent of the arena’s annual revenues, which sparked controversy over Ma’s administration improperly benefiting the corporation, which was selected by the city government in 2004 to undertake the build-operate-transfer project.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue