Kaohsiung MRT work sinks streets, houses

Over 100 people were evacuated from their homes on Da-yung Road (大勇路) in Kaohsiung's Yancheng District (鹽埕區) early yesterday as construction on the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp's Yancheng station caused nearby structures to sink by about 20cm, authorities said.

The Hsin-le borough's (新樂里) patrol team woke neighborhood residents at around 1am yesterday after it was discovered that shop floors were cracking and plate glass windows were exploding.

The displaced residents were offered shelter in nearby hotels.

Firefighters rescued an 80-year-old woman who was trapped on the second floor of her building after the iron grating on the ground-floor door became bent.

A newspaper delivery woman was stunned when she stepped outside to begin work and saw a 15-storey building leaning toward her house. She went back inside to get her two daughters and left the area.

A cordon was put up to surround the affected area. Gas and electricity were cut off.

Apparently the mishap began when a drill that the construction team was using hit a depth of 18m and water and sand began gushing out of the hole. Workers poured in cement to try to fortify the site but could not solve the problem.

An area measuring 700m2 was affected. About 20 buildings sank and streets were pitted with holes as deep as 5m.

Construction manger Chen Yung-yi (陳永義) of Joy Gain Engineering (達欣工程), a contractor working on the project, was quoted as saying that the earth under Yancheng Station (鹽埕站) on the orange line was unstable due both to high groundwater and to the alluvial soil in the area, which was formed by the sediment of the Love River (愛河).

Chen apologized for the incident and said that his company would take full responsibility.

He said that his top priority was to ensure residents' safety and investigate the cause of the incident.