Construction crews yesterday morning laid the first pier foundation for the Kinmen Bridge (金門大橋), the National Freeway Bureau said, adding that it is confident that the bridge would be finished by 2021.
The bridge would connect Greater Kinmen (大金門) and Lieyu (烈嶼, also known as Little Kinmen), the two main islands in the county, the bureau said.
It would span a strip of sea whose bed is on average 7m below the surface, it said, adding that in some areas the seabed is about 20m below the surface.
The geological complexity has made it impossible to lay the pier foundations using steel sheet piles, so the construction crews used the steel cofferdam method, the bureau said.
This was the first time the method was used by the bureau to lay a pier foundation, which took two months to complete, it said, adding that it should be able to lay the other pier foundations faster.
The bureau in March laid a foundation pile on granite.
The bureau yesterday explained the challenges of applying the steel cofferdam method.
The crews first installed jacketed steel pipes as a support base before beginning the construction, it said.
They assembled the steel cofferdam on land before lowering it to a designated depth using 12 large hydraulic jacks, the bureau said, adding that divers worked 3m to 9m below the sea surface to install bottom boards for the cofferdam and seal the plates between jacketed steel pipes.
Crews then pumped in concrete to form a 1.5m-thick bedding at the bottom of the cofferdam before pumping out the seawater trapped inside the structure, it said.
The cofferdam had to withstand buoyancy of more than 1,000 tonnes and tidal effects twice per day, the bureau said, adding that the crews installed six jacketed steel pipes and buoyancy-resistant steel piles to reinforce the structure.
Divers were kept on standby during the construction in case seawater leaked into the cofferdam, it said.
The bridge project has been criticized for “only surfacing during elections.”
The Legislative Yuan’s budget center has said in a report that the project had several issues, such as low budget implementation efficiency and construction delays.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
RSS