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The Suhua Highway Improvement Project (; colloquially 蘇花改, ) was a major highway project in northeast
Suhua Highway Improvement Engineering Office
Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Transportation and Communications Highways in Taiwan Engineering projects Road transportation in Taiwan
The Suhua Highway Improvement Project (; colloquially 蘇花改, ) was a major highway project in northeast Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
to improve and bypass dangerous sections of the Suhua Highway, part of Provincial Highway 9.
The Suhua Highway is the main road connecting Su'ao Township
Su'ao Township (), alternately romanized as Su-ao, is located in southern Yilan County, Taiwan, is an urban township that is famous for its seafood restaurants and cold springs. It is a terminus of National Highway No. 5, the Su'ao-Hualien ...
and Hualien City
Hualien City (; Wade-Giles: Hua¹-lien² Shih⁴; Hokkien POJ: ''Hoa-lian-chhī'' or ''Hoa-liân-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Hualien County, Taiwan. It is located on the east coast of Taiwan on the Pacific O ...
. A portion of the original alignment was built alongside very steep cliffs high above the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
. Because of the rugged terrain, it was often closed due to heavy rain, typhoons
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for ...
, or landslides
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...
, leading to injuries and deaths.
In the 1990s, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) started planning a new freeway to connect Su'ao and Hualien, as part of National Freeway 5
National freeway 5 is a freeway in Taiwan, which begins in Taipei City at Nangang Junction on National freeway 3 and ends in Su-ao, Yilan on Masai Road. Although it was called the Beiyi Freeway (Chinese abbreviation for Taipei to Yilan) prior ...
. However, it was controversial because of its environmental impact. Instead, the MOTC developed a scaled-down project, which constructed bridges and tunnels in three dangerous sections: Su'ao
Su'ao Township (), postal romanization, alternately romanized as Su-ao, is located in southern Yilan County, Taiwan, Yilan County, Taiwan, is an Township (Taiwan), urban township that is famous for its seafood restaurants and Su'ao Cold Spring, ...
– Dong'ao (), Nan'ao
Nanao may refer to:
Places
*, Japan
** Nanao Line a rail line through Nanao, Ishikawa
**Nanao Station a station on the Nanao Line
* Nan'ao County (), Shantou, Guangdong
**Nan'ao Island (), forming most of Nan'ao County
* Nan'ao Subdistrict (), a ...
– Heping (), and Heping– Qingshui (). The improved highway has a speed limit of , lower than a freeway, and still has only one lane in each direction. It cut travel time along the coastline from 2.5 hours to 80 minutes. Some parts of the old alignment was kept open for bicycles and small vehicles, with a speed limit of .
The project was named the Suhua Highway Alternative Project (; colloquially 蘇花替 ) in 2008. Its name was changed to its current name in 2010.
Construction started in 2011 and was expected to take five years and cost 46.5 billion New Taiwan dollar
The New Taiwan dollar ( code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dolla ...
s. Due to difficulties in construction, the project was finally completed in 2020.
References
External links
{{Attached KMLSuhua Highway Improvement Engineering Office
Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Transportation and Communications Highways in Taiwan Engineering projects Road transportation in Taiwan