The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said it would present a comprehensive geological data study on the Suhua Highway to the panel responsible for an environmental impact assessment for a highway improvement project, as the data is crucial to getting a green light to begin construction.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said his ministry has gathered complete geological information about the road dating back to the 1970s, when the Taiwan Railway Administration’s North-Link Line was built near the accident-prone Suhua Highway in northeastern Taiwan.
He expressed hope that the data will accelerate a consensus among the panelists, who conditionally approved the assessment in a preliminary review procedure and asked for more detailed information about the environmental impact to the area should the upgrading work begin.
“We’ve realized that the debate over whether the government should build a separate Suhua freeway has only resulted in a zero-sum game,” Mao said. “We hope our information can clear up the remaining concerns of the committee and that it will approve the improvement project.”
The government has proposed upgrading the most dangerous stretch of the highway by reinforcing the existing road or bypassing it with tunnels and bridges.
Mao said that the ministry has compared geological data from 275 drillings during the past 30 years and 27 recent drillings to make sure the soil and water conditions are adequate to support the construction.
A new review committee was scheduled to convene within two days at the earliest to decide whether the project should be given a final go-ahead.
Mao reiterated that if the environmental impact assessment makes its way through the review committee by the end of the year, construction is expected to be completed by 2016.
Meanwhile, family members of 20 Chinese victims of recent landslides on the Suhua Highway headed home yesterday after holding memorial services for their loved ones a day earlier.
Most of them looked sad but remained composed as they arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. None of them responded to press inquiries about their feelings or opinions.
Li Li (李力), deputy secretary-general of the Zhuhai city government in China’s Guangdong Province, who accompanied the family members on their trip to Taiwan after their relatives went missing on Oct. 21, said all of them were grateful for Taiwan’s all-out search efforts.
“They hope the search will continue so that more personal belongings of their loved ones can be recovered,” Li said.
The whole tour group from Guangdong, along with a Taiwanese tour guide and a Taiwanese tour bus driver, are believed to have been killed when their tour bus was presumably swept off the cliffs from the Suhua Highway by rockslides triggered by torrential rain brought by Typhoon Megi.
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