At least another five to nine of the pillars supporting the Maokong Gondola are unstable or damaged, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor said yesterday, urging the Taipei City Government not to overlook the system’s safety issues.
Taipei City Councilor Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that in addition to the problematic Tower No. 16, he had found other pillars that had been built on unstable ground.
One of the unstable pillars is located near the Zhinan Temple Station, Chuang said, but declined to say where the other problematic pillars were located.
He said he would make the details public once he has collected all the necessary information.
The pillars were built on unstable ground where the topsoil is fragile, and they could be damaged like Tower No. 16 if heavy rains or typhoons occurred, Chuang said.
“I was shocked when city government officials said there were no more damaged pillars. I hope they are not trying to cover up the truth,” he said at Taipei City Council.
The city government said on Tuesday that it was looking for alternative sites to relocate Tower No. 16, after typhoon-related flooding eroded the ground around the pillar.
Responding to Chuang’s allegations, Taipei City Government spokesman Yang Hsiao-tung (羊曉東) said the city government had no knowledge of any other damaged pillars.
However, Sherman Chen (陳雄文), commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Economic Development, acknowledged on Tuesday that there was accumulated water around the slopes of certain pillars.
He said the city government would work to prevent any collapses in the area.
Meanwhile, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who was the mayor of Taipei when construction of the system started, should face an investigation into the construction of the cable car system.
She said as the gondola was located in a mountainous area, it should have first passed a strict environmental assessment and water and soil evaluation, but the Taipei City Government ignored such evaluations and completed the project hastily to make it a sightseeing place.
Tsai said the judiciary and the Control Yuan should conduct a swift investigation and punish officials responsible for the scandal.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS