Asia's longest road tunnel opened to public traffic in Taiwan

Asian Economic News, June 19, 2006

TAIPEI, June 16 Kyodo

A nearly 13-kilometer tunnel linking Taipei and the island's northeastern rural Ilan County was inaugurated Friday, becoming the longest road tunnel in Asia and the fourth longest in the world.

Described by experts and engineers as a ''mission impossible,'' the completion of the long-anticipated Hsuehshan Tunnel, which consists of separate pathways for eastbound and westbound traffic and a pilot tunnel in the middle for emergency use, will reduce the time taken to shuttle between both places from three hours to less than 40 minutes.

Premier Su Tseng-chang was invited to preside over Friday's ceremony held for the opening of the tunnel as well as a monument erected to commemorate 25 people killed during construction, including several foreign laborers.

The premier said the materialization of the tunnel will help balance developments between the Taipei metropolitan area and the 460,000 population living and working on the Lanyang Plain in the northeastern part of the island.

''It feels good,'' Su told reporters after driving a jeep through the tunnel. ''I believe the achievement will not only prosper Ilan but benefit the entire people in eastern Taiwan.''

The Hsuehshan Tunnel, a NT$60 billion (about US$1.8 billion) infrastructure project, is the centerpiece as well as the most challenging section of the 55-kilometer-long Chiang Wei-shui National Expressway, named after a famous Ilan-born political leader who fought against Japanese rule in early 1900s.

Construction began in 1991 amid not only local expectations but also widespread worries over various civil engineering difficulties and technical problems.

Located in a place of adverse geological structure with complex fault lines and fractured rock, excavation made little headway in the beginning years and was seriously delayed by up to 71 collapses and 36 floodings caused by bursts of high-pressure groundwater while digging, drilling and blasting the tunnel.

The tunnel that penetrated through the picturesque, precipitous Hsuehshan, or Snow Mountain, Range and river valleys also triggered environmental concerns that abundant, protected water resources of the greater Taipei area will dwindle and be polluted.

Given the unprecedentedly complicated construction, the agencies concerned carried out numerous drills to ensure smooth operation of the huge ventilation system, a variety of lighting fixtures and the fire alarm system installed in the tunnel.

The Hsuehshan Tunnel will be superseded to become the world's fifth longest when the 18-km-long Zhongnanshan tunnel traversing the Qingling Mountains in northwestern Shaanxi Province of China is complete in 2007, which will be the longest in Asia and the second longest in the world.