The Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) said yesterday that it would take at least three to five years before it could decide whether to open the section of the Central Cross-Island Highway between Guguan (谷關) and Deji (德基) to non-residents.
The section was severely damaged by the 921 Earthquake in 1999. While the DGH spent about NT$2 billion (US$67.7 million) repairing the road and it was scheduled to reopen it on July 15, 2004, it was destroyed again when Typhoon Mindulle struck on July 2 the same year.
DGH Deputy Director Chao Hsin-hua (趙興華) said the construction of a makeshift road connecting Guguan and Deji is scheduled to be completed by the end of next month.
However, the road will only be open to residents of Fongyuan (豐原), Shigang (石岡), Dongshih (東勢), Shinshe (新社) and Heping (和平) districts, as well as those holding work permits in the Greater Lishan (梨山) area.
Chang Ming-chin (張明欽), chief of the DGH’s Taichung Branch Second Maintenance Office, said a comprehensive assessment needed to be conducted before the office could decide if non-residents should be allowed to access the road.
“The Council of Economic Planning and Development approved the makeshift road project on the grounds that the road is designed to offer emergency assistance to local residents,” Chang said. “The makeshift road still needs to undergo the tests of a plum rain season and a typhoon season.”
In the meantime, a consulting firm will assess the safety of the road section, with results expected to be delivered in July next year, Chang said.
Even if the DGH decides to open the highway to all motorists, Chao said a plan to repair the highway must first be approved by council and evaluated by the members of an Environmental Impact Assessment Committee, and that the latter take one to two years.
The Guguan-Deji makeshift road is about 23km, with construction costs estimated at NT$440 million.
To enhance the safety of the road, the DGH has built seven steel-structure tunnels along the route. The DGH has planted vegetation on slopes next to the road to prevent landslides. Nevertheless, heaps of fallen rocks can still be seen along the route.
DGH records show that landslides occurred on different sections of the makeshift road 99 times in 2010 and 92 times last year.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS