After fourteen years as the main artery of Taiwan's prosperous economic belt along the west coast, the North-South Freeway is in dire need of relief. Chronic clogging occurs in the northern section every day during rush hours, causing slow and maddening bumper-to-bumper traffic. But the problem extends to the full distance of the 373-kilometer freeway during weekends and holidays. Drivers commonly find themselves stuck on long stretches of road where their speed is not much different from inter-city traffic during rush hours.
Sections of the North-South Free way, officially known as the Sun Yat-sen Freeway, opened in 1974. Its full length, which connects a dozen major population and economic centers between the cities of Keelung in the north and Fengshan in the south, was open by October 1978. Because the secondary highways along Taiwan's coast and western plains are two lane, often in poor repair, and somewhat meandering, the freeway serves as the primary conduit for the transportation of people and goods along the whole length of the island. The flow of freeway traffic began to deteriorate at an alarmingly rapid pace in 1986, indicating a serious need for another major north-south artery.
Freeway crowding is already having an impact on the economy. For example, the inconvenience of heavy freeway traffic has exacted its toll on domestic tourism, and especially on tourist sites that are far from urban areas. Statistics from the Tourism Bureau show that more people are choosing to stay home rather than compete for road space. From January to September 1990, the number of local tourists dropped by 7 percent from the same period in 1989, to 22 million. Prospects for improvement in the near future are not particularly bright.
Although designed for medium and long-distance travel, the freeway has also become the artery of choice for short-distance trips.
Travel agencies are feeling the pinch. According to Kuo Hsi-mei, manager of South East Travel Service Co., a leading domestic travel agency, many travel agencies expect the economic slowdown and the inconvenience of traveling within Taiwan to result in a 30 percent drop in domestic travel over the first few months of 1991. Her company is making travel easier for clients by relying more heavily on trains and airlines, despite the higher cost. The agency is also cutting back on the number of destinations and schedules it offers.
But the trains are also overcrowded. Although the electrification project of many years ago led to expanded passenger capacity and increased travel frequency, the West Coast Railway line can no longer absorb holiday crowds. Passengers often find that they have to stand during their whole trip.
Overload on the freeway and railway has stimulated the development of domestic flights. Airline business between Taipei in the north and the southern port city of Kaohsiung grew 12 percent in 1990, and 15 percent for the route between Taipei and the city of Tainan, north of Kaohsiung. According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration, both routes are expected to grow at an annual rate of 10 percent in the next three years.
A major reason for the congestion on the North-South Freeway is the rapid increase in the number of automobiles over the past ten years, a direct spin-off from the island's economic prosperity. In 1989, Taiwan had close to 2 million cars, almost five times the 1980 figure of 425,000. And because more people are driving, traveling by private vehicle to tourist destinations has become extremely popular. In the meantime, overall street and highway development within the cities has continued to lag far behind the increase in traffic, prompting many drivers to use the freeway for short-distance or inter-city travel.
Although the freeway was originally designed for medium to long-distance travel, it has become the artery of choice for short-distance trips, especially near Taipei. Statistics comparing traffic on secondary highways and the freeway in the northern part of the island illustrate the problem. The freeway absorbs 74 percent of the traffic between Taipei and the port city of Keelung (a distance of 23 km); 59 percent between Taipei and Tao yuan (26 km); 79 percent between Tao-yuan and Hsinchu (46 km), and 73 per cent between Keelung and Hsinchu (95 km).
Traffic along the whole length of the freeway is aggravated by the prevalence of big cars, tour buses, trucks, and tractor trailers, which together account for one-third of the vehicle flow. Freeway congestion is stimulated further because of Taiwan's recent economic history. In the past few decades, people have migrated to urban areas in search of better paying jobs. But they want to return to their family homes during weekends, and especially during holidays. The impact is most noticeable during major holidays such as Chinese New Year and Moon Festival, when throngs of people clog the freeway on the way to visit relatives.
According to statistics from the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau, 1.9 billion vehicles used the freeway in 1987, amounting to a daily average of 520,000. Since its full opening in 1978, the freeway's vehicle load has grown at an average annual rate of 12 percent. The load has continued to get heavier, with a record 20 percent in crease in 1987, 19.6 percent in 1988, 13 percent in 1989, and 11.7 percent for the first half of 1990. At present, with the exception of a section just north of Tainan, the freeway is exceeding its load capacity.
The prime route to and from busy Keelung Harbor is the freeway tractor-trailers, trucks, tour buses, and large cars account for one-third of vehicle flow.
The most crowded section is near the town of Yangmei, south of Taipei, which regularly carries a load more than twice its capacity. And in the elevated section near the Grand Hotel in northern Taipei, more than 16,000 passenger cars per hour move along the road during the morning and evening rush hours (capacity: 13,200 vehicles), often at speeds below 20 kilometers per hour.
To untangle the serious traffic problem in the northern section of the freeway, the Executive Yuan in 1985 decided to build in northern Taiwan a second freeway running 108 kilometers. Construction began in July 1987, and is scheduled to be completed in 1993. The main route ex tends 90 kilometers. It begins in Hsichih in Taipei county; passes through the communities of Nankang, Mucha, Hsin-tien, Chungho, Yingko, Tahsi, and Chu-tung; and then connects with the North South Freeway near the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park.
The second northern freeway has two branches. One runs 2 kilometers, starting from Yingko, going through the southern part of Taoyuan county, and meeting the North-South Freeway at the exit for Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. The other extends 6 kilometers, from Mucha in Taipei to the crossroads of Hsinhai and Keelung, where it connects with the city's expressway network.
Despite high daily wages, it has been difficult to find enough workers for the second freeway. One solution ─ bring in foreign laborers.
Because the freeway was designed to bypass populous areas in order to reduce the destruction of buildings and farm land, this left only a mountainous route for the freeway, extending along the periphery of urban areas. The choice presented challenging engineering problems, the most notable of which fall in the 18-kilometer mountainous section between Chungho and Hsichih, south and northeast of Taipei. Construction workers had to level high slopes and fill numerous deep crevices. The freeway also has twenty-three tunnels running a total length of 15 kilometers. In some sections of the freeway, vehicles penetrate the mountains through paired three-lane tunnels, each accommodating one-way traffic. This type of tunnel construction is the first on the island.
The freeway plan calls for 190 bridges, the most spectacular of which will be the bridge crossing Pitan Lake in Hsintien, south of Taipei. The bridge, which will span 900 meters, will be supported with arc-shaped buttresses curving over the water's surface.
In view of the frequent road damage on the North-South Freeway caused by overuse and the continuous passage of overloaded trucks, a large section of the second northern freeway will be paved with concrete instead of asphalt. Also, a computerized system, used to monitor the flow of traffic, will include an electronic system that will warn travelers of fog or especially congested traffic.
The second northern freeway, budgeted at US$2.2 billion, is expected to relieve the heavy traffic at the northern section of the North-South Freeway. It is also meant to absorb a considerable amount of Taipei traffic and compensate for the inadequate transportation net work in northern Taiwan. More important, it can extend urbanization to areas outside of the crowded cities along its route, and increase the value of the land along the freeway.
High expectations for the freeway have been dampened by the painfully slow construction. Disputes over land compensation between the landowners and government authorities, as well as a debilitating shortage of labor, have blocked progress on construction work. Landowners complain that they are being offered only less than double (1.5 times) the official value for their land, far below the market price. In the mean time, the project needs 7,000 workers per month, but only 3,000 are available. The authorities report that even a high daily wage of US$55 to US$80 is not enough to attract workers.
Scheduled for completion at the end of 1998 ─ the US$16.5 billion second freeway will add a 435 kilometer north-south artery from Keelung to Linpien.
As of the end of 1990, almost one fourth of the freeway section to the south of Chungho has been completed, just slightly behind schedule. Ninety nine percent of the land needed has al ready been acquired. This contrasts sharply with the 2 percent completion of the section between Chungho and Hsi chih, for which the majority of the required land is yet to be obtained. To break the logjam, Premier Hau Pei-tsun authorized a special panel to work on speeding up construction on the freeway and other major public works projects. The panel has decided to increase land compensation and allow the import of foreign workers.
The measures have helped solve most of the problems. The Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau, which is in charge of the project, expects to acquire all of the land for the section north of Chungho in the first half of 1991. It has also recruited the first group of 243 foreign laborers from Southeast Asia. To speed up construction, the laborers will work two shifts, and the contractors will bring in more equipment. Everyone involved in the construction is up against a deadline. Premier Hau set the end of 1992 as the completion date for the section south of Chungho, and the end of 1993 for the section north of Chungho.
Another US$1 billion will be spent to expand the North-South Freeway by 22 kilometers in the section between Hsichih and Wuku, by building an elevated expressway along the route. This design will avoid problems of land acquisition. The expressway is for motorists headed toward the greater Taipei area, thus easing the flow of medium and long-distance traffic on the freeway. Construction work is scheduled to begin in July 1991, and to end in 1994.
In 1993, construction work will begin on the middle and southern sections of the second freeway, and on the extension of the northern section to Keelung. Scheduled for completion at the end of 1998, the second freeway, according to calculations by the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau, will extend 435 kilometers from Keelung in the north to Linpien in Ping-tung county at the southern tip of the island. Some of the sections will be opened to traffic by the end of 1996.
Accumulated investment on the second freeway is estimated at US$16.5 billion, almost nine times the expenditure for the North-South Freeway. The southern section of the new freeway will also penetrate the inland area, thereby stimulating the growth of less-developed areas and consequently dispersing urban migration away from congested cities. ─ Philip Liu (劉柏登) is the editor-in-chief of Business Taiwan, an English-language weekly newspaper published in Taipei.