■ Transportation
Lawmaker attacks KRTC
The cave-ins at Kaohsiung's rapid transit construction sites were partly the result of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) ignoring its own report on a number of missteps, Independent Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said yesterday. Chiu quoted a Taiwan Construction Research Institute (TCRI) report from May as saying that underground hydraulic data was not taken into account by route designers and the quality of construc-tion was questionable. The report, commissioned by the KRTC, said the KRTC had not properly evaluated subsidence incidents, had not done a good job of monitoring shield machines and had not been able to prevent water leakage. These "defects" seem to have originated from a poor building plan. Chiu said the report had recommended forming an ad hoc group of experts to monitor the construction process but the Democratic Progressive Party opposed the idea. He said the KRTC has ignored the TCRI's safety alerts and refused to stop construction for a comprehensive safety check-up.
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