A spokesperson for the National Freeway Bureau said yesterday it hoped to make one southbound lane and one northbound lane on the Cidu (七堵) section of the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No. 3) accessible within three weeks.
Bureau director-general Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁) said that a speed limit of 40kph would be in force for vehicles passing through the reopened section, as construction work would continue in the area.
“The next step will be to fully reopen the freeway, which may take a few more months,” Tseng said.
Workers have removed more than 22,000m³ of soil and rock from the freeway, the result of a deadly landslide that occurred on April 25, killing four people, the bureau said.
At present work is ongoing or planned in several areas damaged by the landslide. Retaining walls between the southbound and northbound lanes of the freeway were moved around 180m by the force of the landslide.
In addition, an abutment backwall at No. 3 bridge on the northbound lane, as well as one on the feeder bridge connecting the No. 3 bridge and the Wanduan Expressway (萬端快速道路), were also severely damaged and might take longer to repair.
Engineers found, however, that the structure of both bridges remained generally sound, the bureau said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai