The Peiyi freeway linking Taipei City to the northeastern county of Ilan is unlikely to be inaugurated by next June, Minister of Trans-portation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
"It's unrealistic to expect the new 31km expressway to open in mid-2003," Lin said during an inspection tour of the construction site of the Hsuehshan (Snow Mountain,
Although Premier Yu Shyi-kun has expressed his expectation of an earlier completion, Lin said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will stick to its original schedule of completing the project by 2005.
During a March 3 inspection tour of the Hsuehshan Tunnel, also known as a "tunnel beneath troubled waters" for its engineering challenges, Yu ordered the ministry to finalize an overall review of the project in three months.
Construction on the project has long been delayed because of the special geological formation of Hsuehshan, through which the 12.9km tunnel will pass. Yu said if construction cannot be sped up in three months, the officials responsible should be replaced.
Lin, himself a tunnel engineering expert, said whether senior officials of the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau (NEEB) under the ministry will be replaced will depend on their performance in the coming months.
"I hope all NEEB staff can demonstrate a strong will and be open to trying innovative engineering technologies. So long as we have confidence, we'll be able to overcome difficulties and achieve breakthroughs in the construction work," Lin said.
Lin spent the day at the tunnel construction site inspecting the eastward and westward lanes in the tunnel as well as other relevant engineering projects.
Through the concerted efforts of the construction team, tunnel boring was 2 percent ahead of schedule in March.
"This was an encouraging development," Lin said, adding that he will visit the site once a month to see for himself the latest progress.
According to the NEEB-drafted schedule, the new freeway's Shihting-Pingling section will open to traffic by the end of next year. The boring of the Hsuehshan Tunnel head is also scheduled to be completed by the end of next year.
The Toucheng-Suao section will be completed by March 2004 and the boring of the main section of the Hsuehshan Tunnel will be finished by mid-2004 to smooth the way for the completion of the whole project by the end of 2005.
More than a decade has passed since construction on the freeway began in 1991, but the tunnel-boring work has only been half completed due to the frequent welling up of water and mudslides at the construction site.
Because of engineering difficulties, no insurance company is willing to provide safety coverage for the project.
Lin once said that whoever manages to bear through to the completion of the Hsuehshan Tunnel would secure a place in Taiwan's engineering history. When the freeway is completed, driving from Taipei to Ilan will take only 40 minutes, compared to the current two hours.
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