A contractor is mainly at fault for the collapse of a ceiling at Taoyuan’s Bade Civil Sports Center during an earthquake on Sunday, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said yesterday.
The steel-frame ceiling fell on the badminton courts below, injuring one person, during the magnitude 6.8 earthquake.
In Taoyuan, the quake created an intensity of only 3 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale and should not have caused such damage, Cheng told a city council meeting.
Photo: Chen En-hui, Taipei Times
Representatives from civil and structural engineering, and architectural associations inspected the site with city officials, and issued a report on their findings on Monday, he said.
The report concluded that the contractor, Reiju Construction, was mainly responsible for the collapse because it had designed and constructed a ceiling with “insufficient durability,” Cheng said.
A secondary cause was the recent installation of light fixtures by the China Youth Corps, the report said.
The sports center, which opened last year, is still under warranty, and the contractor said it would repair the ceiling and pay compensation, Cheng added.
He said he would publish the findings of an inspection into the collapse and look into whether officials at the city’s Office of Public Construction were in any way at fault.
Reiju Construction was also contracted this year to build community sports centers in Chiayi County and New Taipei City, as well as public housing developments in New Taipei City and Taichung, Cheng said.
Videos showing about two dozen people playing badminton on the courts just before the ceiling collapsed have circulated widely on social media.
They have reignited criticism of poor supervision of public projects, following the closure this summer of the new Hsinchu Baseball Stadium due to building flaws.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan mayoral candidate Simon Chang (張善政) said that if elected, he would order a safety review of all construction projects approved by the city government — which is currently controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party — over the past several years.
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau audited six hotels in an effort to prevent price gouging ahead of Korean band BTS’ concert tour in the city scheduled for Nov. 19, 21 and 22 this year. The bureau on Friday said that the audits — conducted in response to allegations of unfair pricing posted on social media — found no wrongdoing. These establishments included the local branches of Chateau de Chine, Hotel Nikko, My Humble House, and Grand Hai Lai, it said, adding that the Consumer Protection Commission would have penalized price gougers had the accusations been substantiated. The bureau said the Tourism Development Act
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
The military yesterday said it has located the flight data recorder, or black box, of an F-16V jet that disappeared off eastern Taiwan earlier this month, and it would soon deploy a salvage team to try to retrieve it. Air Force Command Headquarters said that while it had pinned down the location of the black box, it was still searching for the aircraft’s sole pilot, air force Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅). Without providing details, the air force said it had located the black box days after detecting some intermittent signals and would now engage a team of professionals to retrieve it. The air
RSS