There is a possibility that the Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋) could be dismantled, Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said yesterday, adding that the city would not rule out any options as it investigates the safety of the complex.
“Dismantling the Dome is one possible option, but I do not think this is the appropriate time to go into details,” Lin said.
“We will use standard international methods to test whether the present structure meets international safety standards,” Lin said, adding that the Dome’s future was a scientific question, not a political one.
The city has to guarantee that residents are provided with international-level safety standards at all times, he said.
Lin said the municipality would examine the safety of the Dome itself and the surrounding sport and culture district after the project is completed, focusing on evacuation plans, fire safety and traffic dispersion.
For this purpose, the city government plans to invite international and domestic experts to examine existing plans with city officials, holding detailed discussions with the site’s architects and requiring that points of contention be simulated through advanced computer models, he said.
If questions over the site’s safety remain, the city will recommend changes and alterations to the site’s plans, without ruling out requiring the structure be dismantled, he said.
Lin’s comment follow similar remarks by Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) earlier this week.
The city’s investigation into site safety follows a breakdown in the renegotiation of the contract with the Dome’s contractor, Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), last month.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) earlier this week said that he had ordered the investigation after discovering that prior examinations were headed by former Construction and Planning Agency director-general Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文).
Yeh has been charged with accepting bribes from Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiun (趙藤雄) to approve several separate development projects.
About a month will be needed before a conclusion can be reached, he said yesterday.
He has declined to reply directly to questions as to whether the structure could be removed, saying that it is a technical question hinging on the site’s safety.
Farglory public relations department deputy manager Jacky Yang (楊舜欽) said NT$30 billion (US$957 million) has been spent on the Dome’s construction so far.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS