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Ma sees smoother road ahead

Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that, although the state of the city's streets had improved, more coordination was needed to avoid digging up the same piece of road repeatedly.

"Over the past year, the city's roads have become less bumpy," Ma said. "But we have to do an even better job next year."

Ma made the comments after department heads briefed him on the progress of a project to repair the city's roads that started in February.

At the briefing, Luo Chun-shen (羅俊昇), chief of the construction maintenance division of the city's Bureau of Public Works, said his staff had received several complaints from the public.

"Road construction by us and digging by other units and services such as for water, electricity, gas and cable TV have all translated into seemingly endless road repairs, which the public complains about," Luo said.

Juang Wu-sheong (莊武雄), division chief of new construction projects, added that some units were rushed when filling in holes they had dug in the road. This, combined with a lack of supervision, contributed to the unevenness of the roads, which in turn brought many complaints from the public.

"To avoid blocking traffic, some units choose to work between 11pm and 6am," Juang said. "The condition of the road after such a short time is often unsatisfactory."

Ma said the Taipei City Government will try to devise ways to coordinate departments and units.

"But it will be a tricky job as this involves private companies as well as government departments," Ma said.

Luo said that of the top 10 roads voted by the Taipei public earlier this year as being in the worst condition, all had been repaired except section 3 of Cheng-te Road and section 1 of Yang-te Avenue. Luo said these two roads "are the next on our priority list."

According to a poll, conducted by the city's Commission of Research, Development and Evaluation from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12, 48 percent of Taipei residents said they were satisfied with the state of the city's roads while 46 percent said they weren't.

Meanwhile, 49 percent said the condition of roads had improved from last year and 36 percent said there was no improvement.

Luo said that roads deteriorated because of heavy traffic flow, frequent repairs and aging.

He said that of the city's 22 million m2 of roads, the main ones had to be repaired every five years and the minor ones every 10 years to keep them level.

"In other words, we should repair an average of 1.8 million m2 of road per year," Luo said.

"But because of budget constraints and bad weather, by Dec. 22 we'd only finished 800,000 m2."

According to figures from the bureau of public works, this year Taipei City allocated NT$138 million for the road repair project. Luo said another NT$22 million left over from last year had been added to the budget this year.

Luo added that 1.2 million m2 of roads are scheduled to be replaced next year.

Despite budget limitations, Ma said the city's roads must be well maintained.

"For Taipei to be an international city," Ma said, "level roads are a basic element we cannot be slack about."
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