President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that a lack of thorough planning has caused severe delays in the construction of the National Palace Museum Southern Branch and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Wei-Wu-Ying).
Ma made the statement at an event commemorating the third anniversary of the launch of the express freeway lanes connecting Wugu District (五股) in New Taipei City and Yangmei District (楊梅) in Taoyuan along the National Sun Yat-Sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1), which was one of his administrations public infrastructure projects designed to stimulate the economy.
Construction began in 2009 and was completed within four years.
Ma reiterated the significance of the project, saying that the government budgeted NT$88.2 billion (US$2.74 billion at current exchange rates), but spent only NT$58.7 billion on the project.
“Originally, the construction crew planned to spend 75 weeks building the overpass, but they finished it 22 weeks ahead of schedule,” he said.
Apart from finishing construction earlier than planned and under budget, Ma said that the overpass has helped divert traffic on the freeway and increased the average speed on the Wugu-Yangmei section to 85kph.
The high-quality construction involved in the project also helped the nation earn the Golden Road Achievement Award from the International Road Confederation last year, the president said.
At the event, Ma presented Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁) a medal for his part in the project.
Tseng supervised the construction of the express lanes while he was the director general of the National Freeway Bureau.
Ma said that the Wugu-Yangmei project demonstrated the importance of thorough planning before construction of public infrastructure projects started.
He said that the construction of the National Palace Museum Southern Branch in Chiayi, which began in 2003, was supposed to be completed by 2008. However, construction was not finished until last year, with 14 contract disputes arising in the initial stages.
Ma said the construction of the Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts was to be finished within three years, but it is now not estimated to be completed until later this year.
Design firm Mecanoo lists the project’s realization on its Web site as 2009 to 2016.
Ma said that construction of the nation’s other achievements, including the electronic freeway toll collection system, the Hsuehshan Tunnel and the high-speed rail system were experiences that could be exported.
“The nation has been a producer and an exporter, but it needs to step up and become a service-export provider, which does not include fraud, of course,” he said.
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