Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) vowed yesterday to improve the quality of the city’s roads and declared that the city would set higher standards, making sure there were no more bumpy or pot-holed roads in Taipei.
Taipei City’s Department of Public Works said the government would finish the road maintenance work by the end of this year — including paving with new tar and decreasing by 30 percent the number of manholes on Zhonghua Road Sec 2, Nankang Road Sec 2 and Linsen S Road, to be used as “demonstration roads.”
“The road quality in Taipei City is far worse than in some underdeveloped countries. The uneven roads bring shame on the city and it’s unacceptable,” Hau said yesterday during a municipal meeting at Taipei City Hall.
Hau said he was dissatisfied over the department’s road maintenance works and said the quality of the roads was so poor that even ambassadors complained about it to him.
He pledged to set higher standards for road quality, and form a “road crew” to review road maintenance work every month.
The department said last month it began offering training courses for road maintenance workers and contractors on road paving, pipeline digging and other skills.
The department also adopted higher standards on the purchase of tar — aiming to prevent the use of recycled tar.
The city government also put a number of restraints on road digging projects and now requires contractors to apply for permits before proceeding with road work.
Hau said the city government would double the fines for those who failed to get permits from the department.
In response to a city councilor’s accusation that contractors rushed road maintenance work on Donghu Road to avoid the department’s examination, Hau said he would personally check the maintenance work on the road before giving approval.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
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