The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it is aiming to begin construction of terminal 3 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in September next year and it would not remove the design for a cloud-shaped ceiling from the plan.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-chung (祁文中), who is also acting chairman of Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC), made the statement at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which was reviewing the budget submitted by the airport company for the next fiscal year.
The ministry previously said it postponed completion of terminal 3 to the end of 2023 after the company twice failed to attract bidders through public-tender sessions.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The postponement has added NT$3.6 billion (US$116.7 million) to the construction budget, increasing it to NT$78.2 billion, the company said.
Lawmakers in the Transportation Committee said that they were dissatisfied with repeated delays in launching construction.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) said that the company has delayed the start of construction three times, increasing the annual budget for professional services to hire a consulting firm to help the airport company manage construction plans.
TIAC has fared poorly in its performance and its budget should be cut by NT$20 million, Chen said.
DPP legislators Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) and Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) also said that its budget should be cut.
TIAC from 2012 to 2015 received funds to pay a technical service fee to a consulting firm that helped it manage construction plans for the terminal and a third runway, and now it is seeking additional funds for a professional management fee, Cheng said.
This is an example of frivolous spending, Cheng said.
The terminal project has been divided into a contract for civil engineering work and one for building the electrical and mechanical core network, Chi said, adding that TIAC is aiming to conclude public-tender sessions for the two contracts in March.
“We are aiming to start construction in September. If the tenders in March fail, a second tender in June must succeed,” he said.
“The company does not have enough workers to complete all of the work, with the workload expected to increase in the years to come,” he said. “As hiring full-time staff would create a problem when it came time to cut personnel, it is only reasonable to outsource management of construction to a consulting firm.”
The company would work hard to achieve the best performance, Chi said.
TIAC had planned to remove a cloud-shaped ceiling — the main feature of the terminal — from the plans to shorten construction time and reduce maintenance costs, but said it would keep the design.
Maintenance of the ceiling, which is to be built with 130,000 aluminum pipes, is estimated to cost NT$1.7 billion annually.
“The ceiling would be a main feature of terminal 3 and an expression of the nation’s architectural skills. It would be a pity to abandon the design,” TIAC vice president Chen Fu-chiang (陳福將) said.
The pipes are to be made of stainless steel rather than aluminum and a special maintenance vehicle would be built to facilitate maintenance, Chen Fu-chiang said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS