The Xinsheng Overpass (新生高架橋) is scheduled to reopen early next month, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday.
The overpass, which was built more than 25 years ago, has undergone reconstruction work since July last year, with a project budget of NT$1.6 billion (US$48 million).
Hau yesterday inspected the reconstruction and promised to open the overpass next month after a thorough safety inspection.
The quality of the construction work came into question recently after the city government acknowledged that substandard adhesive had been used in the reconstruction project.
Taipei City’s Construction Department stopped using the problematic adhesive — Sikadure AnchorFix-4 — for the work and invited the Taipei Structural Engineers Association to assess the bridge last month.
“The safety report will come out next week, but initial reports have found no safety problems ... We expect to open the overpass on schedule,” Hau said.
Wu Chun-hsien (吳俊賢), director of the construction department, said the work would ease congestion in the Yuanshan area, where traffic heading to and from Shilin (士林), Beitou (北投), Dazhi (大直) and Neihu (內湖) cross.
The congestion on Beian Road will improve once the overpass construction is completed, Wu said.
Wu said the work would be finished by the end of this month. The city’s Transportation Department will conduct a safety inspection of the bridge before opening it to traffic, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching