A Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) report on the impact of the construction of the Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋) was criticized as inaccurate and incomplete yesterday by the Taipei City Government’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Review Committee.
The corporation had been required to submit a new report following the discovery of subsidence at the former Songshan Tobacco Factory, causing cracks and tilting in the complex’s smokestack.
The complex, a protected historical site dating to the Japanese colonial period, is located next to the Taipei Dome construction site.
In addition to the impact of the construction on the historical site, the report covered the structure’s evacuation plan and impact on traffic following controversy over its safety.
Yesterday’s report drew nearly unanimous criticism from members of the committee for being “sloppy” and inaccurate.
“This kind of report has completely disrespected the committee,” Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Liou Ming-lone (劉銘龍) said, calling inaccuracies in the report “serious” and “ridiculous.”
Fan Jen-cheng (范正成), professor of bioenvironmental systems engineering at National Taiwan University, said the report’s conclusion described the Songshan smokestack’s degree of tilt as 200 degrees instead of 1/200th of a degree — which would entail the smokestack being flipped over and buried in the ground if the statistic were true.
Other committee members criticized the report for inaccurate dates and illegible figures.
Fan also questioned the adequacy of measures taken by Farglory to protect the Songshan complex, saying that the corporation had treated the complex as an ordinary set of buildings in its analysis, failing to take into account the historical site’s fragility.
He added that the report’s evacuation plans failed to take into consideration the large concentration of people present in the area around the structure.
There was also no mention of special circumstances, such as electricity being cut off, which could prevent some of the Dome’s doors from opening, he said.
Numerous committee members also expressed incredulity over the firm’s stance that the Dome construction should not be halted. The firm claims that further construction is necessary to prevent further subsidence and damage to the Songshan complex.
Farglory was ordered to revise and resubmit its report within two weeks, providing a clearer explanation of the cause of the Songshan complex’s subsidence, as well as running new evacuation simulations to take into account the additional circumstances mentioned by committee members.
The committee refrained from ordering an immediate halt to construction.
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