The construction of a new bridge connecting Kaohsiung and Ping-tung counties began yesterday, a year and a half after the old bridge collapsed, injuring 22 people.
At the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday morning, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) and Pintung County Commissioner Su Chia-chuan (蘇嘉全) were on hand to launch the construction.
Officials said that the new bridge will be built to be earthquake and flood resistant and has been designed so that it can be used for at least 50 years.
In addition, they said the new bridge will be given a creative look in a bid to become one of southern Taiwan's major landmarks.
The construction of the 1,355m bridge will require NT$1.5 billion and will take three years to complete. Currently, about 60,000 commuters rely on the old bridge daily which was repaired for use until the new bridge is completed.
On Aug. 27, 2000, two sections of the Kaoping Bridge connecting Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties broke away from their supports and fell into the river below, injuring 22 people.
The old bridge, which was supposed to be strong enough to last for 50 years, had only been used for 20 years when it collapsed.
Although the old bridge was repaired to reconnect the two sides of the Kaoping River last March, the Taiwan Highway Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications decided to build a new bridge -- composed of two one-way expressways -- next to the old one.
"Building a new bridge is the best way to deal with the situation -- the riverbed under the [old] bridge has diminished by 8m," said Chen Feng-yuan (陳逢源), the director of the Kaohsiung-Tainan Construction Office for the East-West Expressway.
* The new bridge will be 1,355m long and will require NT$1.5 billion and take three years to build.
* The bridge has been designed to withstand earthquakes and severe flooding.
* The first Kaoping Bridge collapsed on Aug. 27, 2000, when two sections broke away from their supports.
Warnings about the loss of riverbed gravel due to quarrying between 1975 and 1995 were presented in September 2000 by a Cabinet task force, which carried out an investigation on the bridge's collapse.
Although a ban on quarrying gravel in the Kaoping River was officially announced in 1997, secret gravel quarrying cases have subsequently been exposed.
Chen said yesterday that the loss of riverbed gravel would lead to damages to piles, weakening their ability to bear weight.
Chen said that abandoning the idea of strengthening the old bridge was based on technological, cost and time factors.
"The new bridge can resist tremors with intensity measurements up to six or seven caused by earthquakes," said Chen.
In addition, Chen said the foundation of the piles, which form the bridge's supports underground and underwater, will be as deep as 17m in order to resist flooding.
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