Flooding that severely disrupted the operation of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Thursday last week was caused by a blockage in one of the airport’s draining pipelines that prevented the rapid discharge of floodwater into the Pusin River (埔心溪), an investigation by the Public Construction Commission (PCC) showed.
“Soft gravel accumulated in a box culvert at one end of Pipeline H, making it difficult to discharge floodwater into the river and subsequently leading to flooding in the airport,” PCC Minister Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) said, adding that Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) failed to respond to the disaster in a timely manner.
The findings were made public at a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday, which was broadcast live online.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Wu said the three-day investigation showed that accumulated rainfall during a thunderstorm on Thursday morning reached 15.1cm, adding that the airport’s draining system is designed to be able to handle that amount.
The commission also found that the flooding was not caused by reversed water flow from the Pusin River, contradicting a statement made by TIAC. The commission’s investigation concluded that the failure to promptly close a floodgate at an underpass leading to the basement of Terminal Two explained why the terminal’s basement was inundated with floodwater.
The commission suggested that TIAC inspect all drainage pipelines within a week. The contractors working on the projects at the airport should make sure that the passages are able to quickly discharge floodwater, the commission said, adding that TIAC and the Taoyuan City Government should share information on the Pusin River and jointly prevent flooding.
TIAC said financial losses caused by the flooding at the airport came to more than NT$50 million (US$1.54 million), including damage to airport facilities and compensation for passengers for the delayed delivery of their luggage.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said in a statement that it would ask TIAC to address the issues mentioned in the PCC report, adding that it would not allow a similar incident to recur.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) yesterday said that he had approved the resignations of TIAC chairman Samuel Lin (林鵬良) and terminated the employment of TIAC president David Fei (費鴻鈞).
Hochen faced criticism from lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday morning, when he was requested to brief lawmakers on how the ministry resumed operations at the airport after the flooding and whether it has any plans to cope with similar crises in the future.
Lawmakers also criticized the ministry over the derailment of a Chukuang-class train on the Hualien-Taitung railway line on Saturday that affected thousands of passengers.
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said it suspected that heat caused the railway tracks to deform, which consequently caused the train to derail.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said that he found it hard to believe that thundershowers would turn the airport into a “hydroport” and that railway tracks would deform because of heat.
Both events exposed the vulnerability of the nation’s transport systems, particularly in coping with the threat from natural disasters, Lee said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) said that the national gateway has become a national shame because of the flooding, adding that the airport company did not tell the whole truth to ministry.
“The airport has attributed the flooding to the water overflow from the Pusin River, which is not true. It was the draining Pipeline H that was clogged and could not discharge water,” Cheng said.
Cheng also said that the accumulated rainfall in Taoyuan’s Pusin District (埔心) hit 8.5cm per hour in 2011, but it did not cause any flooding.
In addition to the TIAC’s lack of drills to combat flooding, Cheng said that some of the company’s employees were allowed to finish work at 5pm on Thursday, even though the management was still busy handling the aftermath of the flooding.
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