Apr 9th, 2017: Hsuehshan Tunnel

[xoxoxoBruce]

Taiwan built the Taipei-Yilan Freeway to balance the building on the island, try to shift the business and population growth to the
less crowded side. But to cut serious time off the trip required tunneling. It took 15 years, plus Billions of dollars for a total length of 12.942 km (8.042 mi), making the Hsuehshan Tunnel the ninth longest road tunnel in the world.

Tunnel construction used 370,000 m3(13,000,000 cu ft) of concrete, 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) of cables, and 2,000 lighting units. While excavating the tunnel, engineers encountered difficult geological problems like fractured rock and massive inflows of water, which caused severe delays. One of the three TBMs on the westbound tunnel was buried by a ground collapse. In order to speed up the tunnel boring, an additional working interface in Interchange Station No. 2 (under Ventilation Shaft No. 2) was built. Along the tunnel alignment, there are six major faults, ninety-eight fracture zones, and thirty six high pressure groundwater sources. Hence, serious tunnel collapses with groundwater flooding took place periodically during tunnel construction. Altogether, 25 lives were lost during 15 years of construction

Sounds like Seattle.

When it opened the speed limit was 50 km/h (31mph), and keep a 50 m (164 ft) separation, when the speed drops to 20 km/h
(12 mph) it’s 20 m (66 ft). The penalty for violating either (with zero tolerance) is a NT$3,000 (US$93.75) to NT$6,000 fine. No passing, no where, no way, no how, and a zillion radar cameras to make sure. They raised the speed limit to 60 km/h(37mph) with a 10 km/h (6mph) tolerance, then to 70 km/h (43mph) with a 10 km/h tolerance.

Methinks they should have called Mighty Paul Chen and Babe the Blue Bulldozer.

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