Hundreds of environmentalists gathered in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday morning, demanding that it halt construction of Special Expressway No.2 (特二號快速道路) in order to protect the Nanzai Stream (湳仔溪) in Banciao (板橋), Taipei County.
The 30km expressway, which connects Tucheng (土城) with Wugu (五股) and passes through Taishan (泰山) and Sinjhuang (新莊), is scheduled to be completed by 2010.
Members of the Banciao Rivers Association dressed up as crabs and shrimp and put on a skit in front of the ministry building, before handing a petition to a ministry representative.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The association said in a statement that the stream has strong connections to the history of Banciao and that it was the only waterway in the Taipei Area where large trees grow along the banks.
However, the ministry has chosen not to preserve the stream and has insisted on building an overpass above it, the statement said.
The association denounced Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) as a “river terminator” and demanded that MOTC Minister Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) step down over the plan. The association further demanded that the ministry halt construction on the section spanning the stream. Designs for two other sections of the expressway should also be altered, they said.
In response, the ministry’s Directorate General of Highways said that construction would continue as planned as it was impossible for the ministry to stop the construction.
Lee Chung-yun (李仲昀), a section chief at Taipei County’s Public Works Bureau, said the project was evaluated by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) before being finalized in 2004.
“The stream is nothing but stagnant water now because it has been cut off from its source,” he said.
As part of the construction project, Lee said the Taipei County Government had budgeted NT$950 million to revitalize the stream. He also said that the overpass was not being built right above the stream, but over higher land to the west.
Lee said two completed sections of the expressway would soon be opened to traffic, which would help divert part of the flow of traffic into the city. The consequences of any delay would be unthinkable, he said.
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