Vital artery to be re-opened

Completed in 1983 and still known to many foreign residents by its former name and spelling as the “Hsinsheng Bridge,” the expressway has been crumbling for several years, with bits of concrete often falling down on pedestrians at street level and large gaps emerging in the connections between bridges.

Since it was closed down in stages in late 2008 and earlier this year to carry out urgently needed repairs and improvements, traffic in the northern and northeastern sectors of Taipei has been seriously stalled.

The re-opening of this vital artery will significantly reduce congestion in the capital at a time when other projects going on around the city, especially construction of new mass rapid transit system lines, are also slowing traffic down.

The reconstruction project has had its share of problems and delays. However, the city government should be congratulated for getting this difficult job done as quickly as it could. As the old Chinese saying goes, “'short pain' is always better than 'long pain.'”

Besides the difficult work of improving the structure itself, the city has also had to defend itself against the tide of Taiwan's sensationalist press and self-anointed TV pundits whose angry opinions are often based on media hype.

After the sensational Apple Daily reported that a glue adhesive used in the improvement work was defective, the pundits demanded that Mayor Hau Lung-bin halt all work and even tear down the entire expressway.

The contractor's use of the potentially defective adhesive was indeed a major blunder that the contractor and glue manufacturer should be held accountable for.

However, the adhesive's use does not substantially affect the structure's safety and engineers will be able to successfully test it before re-opening the expressway. The city government must keep its promise not to open the elevated expressway to a single vehicle before an independent panel of engineering experts from the private Taiwan Professional Structural Engineers Association approves the project after making detailed inspections.

When that inspection occurs, the public must be convinced that the panel of experts is genuinely independent and that their conclusion is based on facts, not politics.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email