President William Lai (賴清德) today oversaw the installation of the final prefabricated segment of the new Danjiang Bridge (淡江大橋) in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水).
Installation of the segment began yesterday, and the final attachment was completed today in the presence of the president, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜).
The Danjiang Bridge is a work of art and a world-class project, Lai said, calling it “Taiwan’s glory.”
Photo: Lo Kuo-chia, Taipei Times
It is a 920m-long primary cable-stayed bridge, nearly 70 stories tall, designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid, a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The late architect Zaha Hadid envisioned the project as a new landmark, blending the bridge into the natural scenery of Tamsui.
Hadid was inspired by a dancer from Taiwan’s Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Lai said.
Lai called it a piece of dynamic and beautiful artwork that looks like it is dancing on the Tamsui River.
Upon completion, the bridge, which is to have a 450m span, is to be the world’s longest asymmetric, single-mast bridge.
It was mentioned in CNN’s “11 architecture projects set to shape the world in 2025.”
The bridge represents Taiwan’s resilience and perseverance, Lai said.
The total budget for the project, which started in 2019, is NT$23.38 billion (US$766 million).
The bridge connecting Tamsui and Bali (八里) districts is expected to ease traffic on Provincial Highway 2 by 17 percent and the Guandu Bridge (關渡大橋) by 30 percent, Lai said.
It is to make it more convenient for residents of the two districts to travel to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and city centers, he said.
The driving distance between Tamsui and Bali is to be shortened by 15km and drivers can save 25 minutes of travel time, he added.
An opening ceremony for the bridge is scheduled for May 9 next year, with the structure expected to open to the public on May 12.
Upon completion, the bridge is expected to handle 24,000 to 25,000 visitors on holidays, Chen said in December last year.
The bridge would also have pedestrian and bicycle lanes to encourage tourists to visit and enjoy sunset views, he added.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS