The Directorate-General of Highways yesterday said that it has succeeded in its project to turn an embankment of the Tuku section of Highway 78 in Yunlin County into an overpass, which it said would partially alleviate subsidence issues facing the high-speed railway line in the area.
The highway authority added that the new highway overpass is scheduled to be opened for traffic tomorrow.
According to the agency, construction of the overpass began in January last year to address subsidence of the high-speed rail line, a problem that is affecting Yunlin and Changhwa counties.
Photo courtesy of the Directorate-General of Highways
The agency said that the Tuku section, which passes under the high-speed railway line near Tuku Township (土庫), was built long before the railway system.
However, agency statistics showed that the railway structure in the area has sunk by about 80cm from 2004 to last year, the most compared with other sections.
The worst year for subsidence was 2011, when the railway slumped 6.8cm, the data showed.
The agency said that the section was at the edge of an area in Yunlin that has seen the worst subsidence.
The railway sank so much because of the weight of the supports that were added to the highway embankment, it added.
“We want the embankment to be less of an issue when the government tackles the land subsidence problem in the area,” agency Director-General Chao Hsing-hua (趙興華) said.
To turn the embankment into an overpass, 92,000 tonnes of dirt was removed before a 267m-long overpass was built.
Construction costs were approximately NT$430 million (US$13.96 million). On average, each meter cost about NT$1.61 million.
Wu Chao-huang (吳昭煌), deputy director of the agency’s fifth maintenance department, said that the construction has proved effective in easing further subsidence of the high-speed rail.
He said that the overpass actually rose by between 1.7mm and 8.7mm.
The agency said that a water-shortage problem appeared to have slightly increased subsidence of the high-speed rail by 1mm, adding that it would closely monitor the situation.
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