The Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) will hold an emergency drill on the Suhua Highway between 2pm and 4pm today, the agency said yesterday.
Chang Yu-bo (張宇博), head of the agency’s Hualien Engineering Division, said the exercise will take place on the section between Hejhong (和中) and Chongde (崇德) in Hualien County.
“The drill will simulate a typhoon hitting Taiwan, with accumulated rainfall in Hejhong of 60mm per hour,” Chang said. “In our evaluation, such a situation would amount to a natural disaster.”
“Our staff will follow procedures by closing the Hejhong-Chongde section first. Vehicles that are already in that section will be guided to a temporary shelter at a safe location and be required to wait there until travel restrictions are lifted,” Chang said.
Text messages sent through the location-based service will also be sent to motorists by the DGH, Chang said.
The agency’s decision to hold the exercise comes in the wake of severe road damage caused by typhoons in recent years.
The DGH also held a three-day exercise on Alishan Highway (Highway No. 18) last week.
Both highways are vulnerable to natural disasters, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said it planned to improve safety on the Suhua Highway by increasing the amount of gravel transported by railway rather than by road.
At present, motorists have to deal not only with treacherous road conditions, but also large gravel trucks.
The ministry said estimates indicate that the number of large trucks would increase during construction work on the Suhua Highway Improvement Project. As such, it has requested the assistance of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) in helping to transport gravel.
The TRA said it had budgeted NT$1.2 billion (US$72.6 million) to remodel 650 cargo cars to deal with the increase in the volume of gravel that will have to be transported over the next two years. The expanded cargo service would divert between 17 and 49 percent of gravel transported by road to the railway service during construction, it said.
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