Construction on the Taipei MRT's Xinyi Line sparked controversy yesterday, with several residents accusing city authorities and the contractor of refusing to take responsibility for damage caused by the construction.
The residents, accompanied by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yi-hua (林奕華), said their apartment, located next to the MRT's Da-an Station, suffered external and structural damage because of the construction.
Lei Yuan-chia (雷源嘉), manager of the apartment complex, said tiles on the exterior walls of the 30-year-old building started to crack when the construction of the line began in 2007. Cracks were also found on the posts and floors, and there could be more structural damage if the city's Department of Rapid Transit Systems and the contractor failed to solve the problem, he said.
“We talked to the department many times about the problem, but it just ignored our warnings. Does the Taipei City Government plan to ignore the problem until the building collapses?” he asked while standing in front of the building.
Lin and Lei accused the department of collaborating with the contractor and refusing to conduct thorough inspections on the structural damage to the building.
“The city government established standard procedures to address disputes over damage to buildings caused by construction projects. It's unacceptable that it refused to conduct an inspection,” Lin said.
Lin said she demanded that the department and the contractor examine the safety of the building in 2008, but the department only agreed to inspect the building's exterior.
Lee Kuo-an (李國安), a division director at the department, said construction near the building was designed to turn Da-an Station into a transfer station for the Xinyi and Wenshan-Neihu MRT lines and an initial inspection had found that the building had suffered no structural damage.
“The cracks on the walls and the posts did not damage the structure of the building. However, we will perform another safety inspection next month as the residents are still concerned about the matter,” he said.
Lin said she would take the case to the city's Department of Government Ethics and ask it to investigate the relationship between the Department of Rapid Transit Systems and the contractor if the problem remained unresolved.
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