The Ministry of Transportation and Communications hopes to import 200 foreign workers to help speed up construction of the Shueishan Tunnel, the centerpiece of the Peiyi Freeway project, an official said yesterday.
An average of 1,500 workers are now working on the tunnel project, the official said, adding that more workers are needed to ensure smooth completion of the freeway before the end of this year as scheduled.
Because of tough working conditions, the official said, Taiwanese have been reluctant to work on the construction project.
"We have long faced a serious labor shortage problem, " the official said, adding that the ministry hopes the Council of Labor Affairs can allow it to import about 200 foreign workers for the project on a special case-by-case basis.
Boring on the Shueishan Tunnel, also known as a "tunnel beneath troubled waters" for its engineering difficulties, began 13 years ago. After many twists and turns, the earth boring work of the 12.9-km tunnel was finally completed last September.
The tunnel has been called one of the most challenging road construction projects in the world. It is the longest highway tunnel in Asia and the fifth-longest in the world.
Construction has long been delayed because of the special geological formation of Shueishan through which the tunnel passes. Construction on the 31-km Peiyi Freeway which links Taipei to Ilan began in 1991.
Boring work has often been halted due to the frequent welling up of water at the construction site as well as mud slides.
Because of the engineering difficulties, no insurance company has been willing to provide safety coverage for the project. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
When the freeway is completed by the end of this year, driving from Taipei to Ilan will take only 40 minutes, compared to the two hours required at present.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift