Builders of the Hsuehshan (
The reason for the work stoppage was once again the appearance of water, the source of which has puzzled the development team, springing forth unpredictably and freezing the smiles that only recently appeared on team members' faces during the decade-old task of boring out the tunnel.
PHOTO: CNA
Endless water
The boring of the Hsuehshan Tunnel -- the centerpiece of the 31km Beiyi Freeway (北宜快速路) connecting Taipei and the eastern city of Ilan, was suspended nearly a year ago mainly because of water.
Year-round, regardless of the season, water has continued to inundate the construction site at the rate of 150 to 200 liters per second.
Seeking to learn the source of the water, the construction team had the water carbon-dated. They discovered that some of the water at the construction site is about 4,800 years old. No word yet, though, on where it is coming from.
The 12.9km tunnel -- one of the most important development projects ever initiated by the KMT and one whose completion Premier Yu Shyi-kun has placed high on his Cabinet's agenda -- is set to open in 2005.
If work remains on schedule, the journey between Taipei and Ilan will be reduced from the current two hours to just 40 minutes.
The Beiyi Freeway is considered a major breakthrough for Ilan's transportation and road development, which has been called the "back of the mountain."
Because of the high-mountain barrier, people from Ilan have had to trek along the coastal highway to Taipei or by lengthier and more treacherous mountain routes.
On a recent inspection tour of the various construction sites along the freeway project, Kuo Yao-chi (
Kuo praised the endeavor and the diligence of the construction team and said that her inspections have allowed her to gain a better understanding of the difficulties the team has had to overcome.
When completed, the Hsuehshan Tunnel will be Asia's longest and the world's third-longest after a tunnel linking Switzerland and Italy and another that links Switzerland and France.
Development of the tunnel, which began in July 1991, has been a trying task, the story of which could easily fill a thick book.
Along with the more predictable difficulties of building on mountainous terrain, the unique geological factors in areas the tunnel is passing through have tested the mettle of construction teams.
The freeway development team is an experienced one, with seasoned engineers and workers from the Ret-Ser Engineering Agency (
The team originally planned to complete the penetration of the mammoth Hsuehshan -- the mountain backbone of northern Taiwan that divides the Taipei Basin in the north and the Lanyang Plain in the east -- by the end of 2000.
However, in the first two years of work, there was hardly any progress as the team was held up by Hsuehshan's odd series of faults and by the merciless flooding.
Designers and engineers gave up their original schedule in 1996 -- after progressing only about 1.9km in four years, after the US$28.6 million tank-like tunnel boring machine they were using was swallowed by falling mud, rocks and tremendous amounts of water.
After years of painstaking work, which featured a pattern of "going forward, facing surging water and then tunnel collapse," and because of fears that the underground water source might be affected and take thousands of years to replenish, the team called a halt to the project last April. It did not restart until early this year.
To conquer the most-difficult parts of the tunnel project, the engineering team drilled three vertical shafts in the 12.9km-route, one of which was 80 stories below the surface of the mountain range.
The tunnel builders conducted a thorough scanning of the geology of the strata of the range by airlifting sonar, a global positioning system and other advanced equipment by helicopter to the top of the range in order to find out what exactly was in the mountains that made the engineering task so Herculean.
However, they were only able to scan about 300m into the mountain, leaving more than 100m of further depth still a mystery.
Meanwhile, in order to conquer the problems of water seepage and mudslides, the engineers have applied state-of-the-art drilling technologies to fasten the floors and ceilings at drilling locations.
Because of delays in the project, eight units have been working on an around-the-clock basis to get the task completed on schedule.
Dangers lurk
Despite the danger of the project, only one fatality has occurred. The challenges and risks of the job, however, are so great that not a single insurance company, in Taiwan or abroad, was willing to provide coverage for the tunnel construction, the location, or the personnel working at the sites.
To protect against the danger and uncertainty of battling against nature, each group of people involved in the project have employed their own methods.
The Chinese have erected a Tu Di-gong (土地公, god of the land) the Thai laborers have been praying to a statue of Brahma, the Japanese engineers have put stickers of their "god of the mountain" on their safety helmets and the Italians have erected a statue of Santa Barbara in front of the tunnel site.
Because of the difficulties experienced in building the tunnel, several engineers have bowed out of the project in frustration, with only a few die-hards remaining.
One engineer who has remained shaved his head in a gesture of defiance against the curse of "It" and has vowed to hang on until the tunnel is completed.
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