The National Development Council (NDC) on Monday approved a plan to connect Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) to Miaoli County via a freeway overpass in a bid to redirect traffic from the level highway in Hsinchu.
Under the plan, the overpass that ends at Yangmei is to be extended south to Miaoli’s Toufen City (頭份), diverting an estimated 30 percent of the traffic from Sun Yat-sen Freeway (National Freeway No. 1) between Yangmei and Hsinchu.
The council estimated that construction on the 36km of freeway would be completed by August 2032 at a cost of NT$131.4 billion (US$4.21 billion).
Photo courtesy of the National Development Council
The stretch of freeway between Yangmei and Hsinchu often becomes congested during peak hours, as local drivers working in the Hsinchu industrial and science parks merge to join those driving through.
It also has a maximum capacity of about 5,100 vehicles per hour, significantly fewer than the standard of 6,000 in other sections, Freeway Bureau Director-General Chao Hsin-hua (趙興華) said.
The project would also see the section in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口) straightened to shorten its distance to about 3km, the NDC said.
A previous overpass expansion connecting New Taipei City’s Wugu District (五股) and Yangmei successfully eased congestion between Taipei and Taoyuan, it added.
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