Greater Taichung residents are complaining about the condition of the city’s basic infrastructure and public services, demanding better roadwork repairs and reduction of manhole covers.
Greater Taichung City Councilor Chang Yao-chung (張耀中) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stressed the need for renovations to make roads safe for motorists and pedestrians, citing Dazhen Street (大正街) in Greater Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯), where there are more than 20 manhole covers within a 50m stretch.
“Some of these belong to electricity and telecommunications service companies, others are for underground sewers,” Chang said.
Photo: Chang Ching-ya, Taipei Times
He said that 12 manhole covers can be found in a certain 10m stretch of this street.
“This spot has the highest density of manhole covers in the whole city. These belong to five different cable TV and telecommunications companies. Two are for the city government’s own broadband services,” he added.
He said at one road intersection in Wurih District (烏日) there are 10 manhole covers, some of which are round and other rectangular, belonging to Taipower, underground sewers and flood control culverts.
“These metal manhole covers make the road surface uneven and are very dangerous. Motorcyclists are most affected by the bumpy road, but motorists also complain about it. Residents keep asking why the city government cannot integrate them all in a better way,” Chang said.
He said that broadband cables were supposed to be integrated into the joined telecommunication lines before the consolidation of the former Taichung city and county in 2010.
“Our city government claimed to have laid down 2,400km of broadband cable lines last year, but Dazhen Street is in the city, and it did not integrate the broadband cables. So the claim of integrated underground utility and telecommunications lines is nothing but empty promises,” Chang said.
One road in Houli District (后里) has 144 manhole covers in one 1km section.
Nationalist Chinese Party (KMT) Greater Taichung City Councilor Chen Pen-tien (陳本添) said a person can step on a manhole cover every three steps on that road, and there are wide variations in the levels of the road surface.
“This is a commercial district with many shops and high-price apartment buildings, but the manhole covers and different asphalt pavings from road repairs made it look like a beggar’s overcoat full of holes. This not only affects motorists’ safety, but also the attractiveness of the street view,” Chen said.
DPP Greater Taichung City Councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said manhole covers in most foreign countries are well-planned and designed to be even with the road surface.
“The Greater Taichung Government’s Construction Bureau went to these countries to study how they do it, but have not made any improvements back home. That is dereliction of duty,” he said, adding that the bureau officials’ overseas trips were a big waste of taxpayers’ money.
In response, Greater Taichung Construction Bureau Director Wu Shih-wei (吳世瑋) said the cable lines laid down by telecommunications companies were legal, so they cannot be removed arbitrarily.
“There are a total of about 821,000 manhole covers throughout Greater Taichung. We will reduce the electricity lines and telecommunication cables when paving road surfaces in the future. The broadband cables that are not being utilized will be handled at the same time,” he said.
“Gas pipelines and sewer conduits pose a danger to people, so manhole covers are a must for these. We hope to reduce manhole covers on roads and streets by more than 60 percent within 10 years,” Wu said.
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