A temporary steel bridge over the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in Hualien County opened for traffic yesterday after the original bridge was destroyed by flooding on Sept. 23 last year.
The bridge is an important passage connecting Fonglin (鳳林) and Guangfu (光復) townships.
Torrential rain brought by the outer rainbands of Typhoon Ragasa led to the collapse of a barrier lake along the Mataian River, killing 18 people and causing massive infrastructure damage, including the bridge over the river.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
The temporary bridge, which features one through lane and one slow lane in each direction, opened for traffic at 10am, one month earlier than initially scheduled.
Construction of a new permanent bridge also began on Wednesday.
The deck of the new bridge is to be 9m higher than the old bridge to enhance its disaster-resistant capabilities, the Highway Bureau said.
Northbound lanes of the new bridge are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, while southbound lanes are scheduled to be completed next year, it said.
“I have never seen such a highly efficient construction team, which helped rebuild the Nanfangao Bridge. Their professionalism and experience enabled them to make an accurate judgement on the direction of the construction,” bureau Director-General Lin Fu-shan (林福山) told a news conference in Hualien.
By employing a hydrojet vibro hammer to install H-shaped steel piles, engineers were able to overcome the riverbed’s large boulders that had been hindering progress, Lin said.
The bureau’s Eastern Region Branch Office said in a briefing that the construction of the 560m-long and 12m-wide steel bridge would cost about NT$430 million (US$13.68 million), adding that the bridge would be closed when there is extremely heavy rainfall or the water level at the upper stream reaches a dangerous level.
The construction team was managed by engineers from Shun Yun Engineering Co.
Company president Hsieh Jin-ching (謝金清) said the team’s biggest challenge was the geological conditions in Hualien, which are very different from that on the west coast.
“We tried to use all the tools we have to install steel piles. The hydrojet vibro hammer technique was proven to be the most efficient. We started making progress in construction after a one-week adjustment period,” Hsieh said.
The technique uses a large amount of water to remove boulders on the riverbed to facilitate the installation of steel piles, which helps minimize wear and tear on the equipment, Hsieh said.
The team used three sets of machinery to speed up construction, which was slightly delayed by a newly formed barrier lake along the Mataian River and arrival of Typhoon Fung-wong, he said.
The riverbed access path, which was built before the temporary steel bridge, would be removed within one week for the Water Resources Agency to carry out dredging work, Lin said.
The new bridge is being built by the contractor that built the Danjiang Bridge in New Taipei City and should be completed on schedule, Lin added.
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