The tender for the design of a vibration-reduction project in the Tainan Science Park, which will be bisected by the nation's first high-speed railway, was awarded to a domestic high-tech firm last week although the test results of an on-the-spot experiment failed to fit the bill, the National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday.
Last month, the council decided to award NT$35 million to Sheus Technologies Corp for its design aiming to reduce vibrations, caused by the railway, which could affect high-tech firms in the science park.
Details of the design, officials said, would be completed by the end of November. The invitation for bids for construction pertaining to vibration reduction will be completed in March next year.
"We estimate that construction will be completed by the end of 2005, when the high-speed railway service will open to the public," council Deputy Minister Hsieh Ching-chih (
In the last few months, Sheus Technologies Corp dug a specially-designed ditch about 50m from the track to test the effectivity of their vibration-reduction design.
Hsieh admitted that the test results of the on-the-spot experiment failed to resolve the issue satisfactorily.
According to the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp, 74 percent of the track would be built on viaducts. In 2001, it decided to use support cushions in the upper part of the viaducts to reduce the vibration level to 65dB within 200m of the railway line.
Meanwhile, according to the council, semiconductor firms had specified they required a vibration ceiling of 48dB in a 200m radius from the track.
This discrepancy has slowed development of the park. Since February, 2001, several major Taiwanese chipmakers, including Winbond Electronics, Chi Mei Electronics, Silicon Integrated Systems, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United Microelectronics, have either canceled or reconsidered plans to build billions of dollars worth of wafer-producing facilities in the park. Makers of dynamic RAM chips had also been pulling out. The percentage of leased land in the 638-hectare park dropped sharply to 50 percent from the original 80 percent.
Last October, the council solicited bids for the vibration-reduction project from firms both at home and abroad. Sheus Technologies Corp won the bid even though its on-the-scene test results failed to make the grade.
NSC officials said Sheus would reinforce the 5km section of the viaduct near the high-tech park by adding eight huge pieces of concrete between piers to further reduce vibrations.
"Hopefully, the combination of two different measures would lead to low-vibration results acceptable to high-tech firms in the science park," Hsieh said.
According to the council, 70 percent of land in the park had been leased sucessfully.
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