Taipei City’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems was urged yesterday to answer allegations of poor planning after construction on a section of the Songshan MRT Line was halted because workers discovered ground anchors belonging to a building on Nanjing E Road in the line’s path.
A total of 11 ground anchors, which are installed to strengthen the foundations of a building, were found under the Asiaworld Shopping Mall on Nanjing E Road.
Removal of the ground anchors could damage the mall’s structure, while failing to dismantle the ground anchors would delay construction of the line, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chang Mao-nan (張茂楠) said.
“Why did the department find ground anchors along the proposed route? The department should explain its plans and whether or not the route will be altered as a result,” Chang told a press conference at Taipei City Council.
In response, Yu Nian-zi (余念梓), a division chief at the department, said the ground anchors were probably installed as temporary support anchors and could probably be dismantled without affecting the safety of the building.
The department expects to remove the ground anchors after reaching an agreement with the owners of the mall and the construction of the line should be completed on schedule, he said.
But Yu Chi-hsue (虞積學), a division chief of Taipei City’s Building Administration Office, said the department should invite construction engineering experts to assess safety issues before removing the ground anchors.
Yu said the office would also examine the mall’s construction records to investigate whether or not the builders had violated construction regulations by installing ground anchors outside the range of its planned construction site.
The Songshan MRT Line is an extension of the Xindian Line and will pass from Songshan train station along Nanjing E Road and to Ximending. The line is scheduled to open in 2013.
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
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods