Lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to review its management system of slopes along highways and freeways after a landslide on the southbound side of National Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) on Tuesday caused severe congestion during peak-hour traffic yesterday morning.
Although the incident, which disrupted traffic in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), did not lead to any injuries, it came under scrutiny at the committee as it was reminiscent of a landslide on Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3) on April 25, 2010, which killed four people.
The affected section on National Sun Yat-sen Freeway is scheduled to reopen for traffic by 5pm tomorrow, the Freeway Bureau said.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said the incident is worrisome as the failed slope was categorized as level C, meaning that it was relatively stable compared with level A or level B slopes, which are landslide-prone.
Prior to the landslide, the bureau on Oct. 18 conducted a special inspection of all the slopes in the section after days of heavy rain, in which it did not identify any matter of concern, Lee said.
None of the 28 monitoring devices installed on the failed slope detected any problems either, he said.
The Freeway Bureau should broaden the scope of its slope inspections and ensure that data from monitoring devices can be instantly transmitted to the agency, Lee said, adding that it should review its slope management system.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said that the government budgets nearly NT$500 million (US$15.54 million) per year to inspect slopes along freeways, with the hope that the monitoring devices can issue timely alerts when an emergency occurs.
The bureau should not have any excuse if the devices fail to function as expected, Lin said, adding that it should not use identical standards to manage slopes nationwide either.
“Compared with southern regions, the northern region has more rainy days in the fall and winter,” Lin said. “The standards used to inspect the slopes in the north should be different from those in the south, even if they are all categorized as level C.”
Independent Legislator Chao Cheng-yu (趙正宇) said that the bureau has applied new technology to prevent the erosion of earth anchors, but the technology has yet to be applied to most slopes.
The number of load-measuring devices installed on slopes remains insufficient, Chao said.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) told lawmakers that the Freeway Bureau manages 2,567 slopes along freeways, all of which are level C or level D.
There are 597 level C slopes, including the one where the landslide occurred, Wang said.
“We will review the slope management system by examining whether we have installed enough monitoring devices on the slopes, as well as how they should have been installed,” he said. “Most of the monitoring devices are installed lower on slopes. With increasing occurrences of extreme weather, we should monitor a larger area by installing devices on the upper parts as well.”
Freeway Bureau Director-General Chao Hsing-hua (趙興華) said that it installs about 90 percent of monitoring devices on the dip slopes, but the landslide occurred on an oblique slope.
“The landslide occurred after rain seeped into cracks in the rocks. We are planning to install monitoring devices on slopes in a more dense manner,” Chao said, adding that a report about the incident would be made public in about a month.
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