Repairs have been completed on roads in Greater Kaohsiung damaged in the gas pipeline explosions on July 31 and the early hours of the next day and they were opened to the public at midnight yesterday morning.
The disaster caused by gas leaks claimed 30 lives and injured more than 300 people.
Residents of the area were emotional after seeing the newly paved roads and the roadblocks being removed.
Photos: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
One man, surnamed Chang (張), said the area had looked like a warzone on Aug. 1 and three months later it looked as if nothing had changed.
Many of the drivers directed by traffic police were hesitant as they neared the streets, asking police officers if the road was actually clear.
A couple crossing the repaved intersection of Ersheng and Kaisyuan roads pointed to the pavement under their feet and said: “That very box culvert, that had a leak that caused the explosions, and the propene pipeline was right here.”
“Though it has only been a few months for the rest of the nation, people in the affected areas feel like it has been years since the explosions,” the husband, surnamed Yang (楊), said.
“I felt sadness welling up within me when I went past the crossing,” he said.
Meanwhile, in response to allegations that the road repairs had been completed just in time for next Saturday’s nine-in-one elections in an attempt to garner votes, Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said the decision to allow traffic to pass through the affected areas had nothing to do with the elections.
The explosions were one of the greatest disasters to hit Greater Kaohsiung in the past 50 years, Chen said, adding that the hard work the Greater Kaohsiung Government had put into the repairs was so that residents could resume their daily lives and would not have to take an alternate route when going to work or school.
No one could have predicted the gas explosions would occur prior to elections and the repairs had not been rushed especially for the elections, Chen said, adding that the repairs were “top quality.”
Greater Kaohsiung Maintenance Office Director Chao Chien-chiao (趙建喬) said the original plan was to allow the public access to the affected areas by Thursday and finish all of the repairs by Dec. 20.
The office is set to begin work on the sidewalks and the office hopes that store owners will be as accommodating as they have been up until now, as the repairs are likely to be quite noisy, Chao said.
ALARM GROWS: US officials are concerned that China’s claim that the Taiwan Strait is an internal waterway is a deliberate effort to muddy the legal status of Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to reject a vague new assertion by China that the Taiwan Strait is not “international waters” and is increasingly concerned the stance could result in more frequent challenges at sea for Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Chinese officials have made such remarks repeatedly in meetings with US counterparts over the past few months. In the past, while China regularly protested US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters was not a regular talking point in meetings with US officials. The timing of the assertion is causing alarm within the
‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportation Taipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. The survey, which is to be published in the magazine’s July/August issue, selected the world’s top 25 cities based on factors including cost of living, retail, hospitality, culture and access to green spaces, as well as feedback from Monocle correspondents. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. The survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five.
NO COMORBIDITIES: The girl died of encephalitis, the sixth COVID-19-related death of the disease this year and 19th death of a child from the virus, the center said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 52,213 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and 171 deaths from the virus, including a four-year-old girl, who had been diagnosed with encephalitis, and a 19-year-old man, who had underlying health conditions. “The caseloads are usually higher on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but they [yesterday] fell 7.3 percent from the day before,” Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Chuang, who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that most cities and counties reported a drop in new cases, and the CECC expects fewer than 50,000 new cases today. The center said that 150 of
LIMIT: The CECC has capped the number of weekly arrivals to 25,000, which critics said has limited the number of available flights and caused ticket prices to soar The government is not likely to raise the cap on the number of inbound travelers before the end of this month, despite the apparent effect on the number of inbound flights, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday last week eased quarantine rules for inbound travelers, who must undergo three days of home quarantine upon arrival and spend another four days in self-initiated disease prevention. It also capped the number of inbound travelers to 25,000 per week. The weekly limit has drawn criticism that it has limited the number of flights
RSS