The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday denied that it rejected a plan to build an expressway connecting Hualien and Taitung counties, adding that the project is in the feasibility assessment phase.
“We have completed a preliminary review of the project, and the Highway Bureau has been asked to provide more details. The assessment would focus on the feasibility of constructing the expressway in sections,” Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) told reporters at a news conference in Taipei.
In previous assessments, the cost-benefit of building the expressway was smaller than 1, Chen said, adding that it agreed to reconsider the project after improvements to the transportation infrastructure on the east coast.
Photo: CNA
“The bureau should assess how the expressway would change Hualien and Taitung counties and the tourism industry there. It should also include in its assessment the size and costs of the construction and how it would connect other corridors on the east coast,” he said.
Highway Bureau Director-General Chen Wen-juei (陳文瑞) said that the agency began reassessing the feasibility of building the expressway following a motion passed at the legislature in 2019.
The area assessed by the bureau stretches 174km from Hualien County’s Chungde Village (崇德) south to Taitung City.
Experts were invited to review the project, from the handling of earthworks, funding and economic benefits that the project could generate to its potential effects on the environment and landscape, Chen Wen-juei said.
The bureau last year began hosting information sessions in areas that could be affected by the project, he said.
Based on the Highway Bureau’s plan, the 3km section from Chungde to Hualien County’s Hsincheng Township (新城) could be constructed first, at an estimated cost of about NT$9 billion (US$273.39 million). It could serve as an extension of a section of the Suhua Highway Safety Enhancement Project.
Construction costs of the about 27km section from Hsincheng to Jian Township (吉安) are estimated at NT$90 billion.
The total cost of the highway could reach NT$361.4 billion.
In the past eight years, the ministry has spent NT$326.4 billion on transportation infrastructure projects on the east coast, including NT$104.7 billion on railway projects and NT$221.7 billion on highway projects, ministry data showed.
Of the highway projects, the Suhua Highway Safety Enhancement Project is to cost NT$105.6 billion.
Separately, the Railway Bureau said that it did not reject a plan for the construction of a Keelung MRT system, adding that it is reviewing the project.
The New Taipei City Government, which is in charge of building and operating the system, first submitted the construction plan on Dec. 16 last year, with the construction cost reaching NT$126.154 billion, Railway Bureau Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) told reporters.
However, the city’s estimated cost had exceeded the approved funding cap of NT$69.589 billion, Yang said.
Following the bureau’s review in January, the city government submitted a revised construction plan on Feb. 12, which the bureau is reviewing, he said.
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