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.
HOT-SPRING RETREAT: A hotel in Japan incurred a loss of about US$1,846 after a Taiwanese man failed to show up for his reservation due to a misunderstood message A Taiwanese man who failed to show up for a hotel reservation in Japan has apologized and offered compensation, the hotel said yesterday. The man, surnamed Lee (李), reserved a room at the Yufuin Tsubaki hot-spring hotel in Oita for the Lunar New Year holiday, but failed to show up on Friday. Lee yesterday called the hotel to apologize and offered to compensate the losses caused by his failure to show up, a hotel employee surnamed Yashiro said. Lee’s wife also called on Sunday to apologize, she said. Lee had booked a two-night stay with upscale seafood and beef meals, the hotel said. His
Two Taiwanese Americans were among those killed in a mass shooting at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles (TECO LA) said it contacted local authorities, who confirmed that two of the 11 killed in the shooting were Taiwanese Americans. “TECO LA conveys our heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families, and sends our prayers to the injured for a speedy recovery,” it said in a statement. The office said it is assisting the relatives of one of the victims to travel from
A senior US senator on Monday questioned the willingness of some US allies to help defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. Although Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) expects the US and Japan to respond in a war in the Taiwan Strait, he was “a little less confident what our other allies would do,” US Senator John Cornyn said. Australia and New Zealand have voiced support for Taiwan, but it “is a far cry from committing troops to repel an invasion,” Cornyn said during a discussion on China, Russia and the state of US military readiness at a forum hosted
Whisky connoisseurs are a rapidly growing demographic in Taiwan, driving prices ever higher as collectors vie for the most coveted editions. Although not a new pastime, whisky collection has been picking up steam in recent years. According to the Scotch Whisky Association, Taiwan was the third-largest buyer of Scotch whisky in 2021 in monetary terms. One collector, surnamed Fu (傅), said there are many types of whisky that are ripe for collecting. One that has skyrocketed in price in recent years is the Macallan 12-year-old Gran Reserva, which bears a striking purple label, said Fu, who has more than 10 years of experience as