(1)Plan Origin
The former Bureau of Housing and Urban Development (BHUD) in Taiwan Provincial Government carried out “Taichung Metropolitan MRT System Program” in 1990, which expected to use rail transportation via MRT for improving the traffic environment, enhancing the standard of transportation service, balancing development of metropolitan and strengthening the quality of the living environment. In 1998, the BHUD completed the “Detail planning on Taichung Metropolitan MRT network”, which suggested the 69.3 km of the whole network to be split into the red, blue and green lines. After that, cooperation was made with the governmental organization for reformation and the program was transferred to the Bureau in July 1999 for continuing with the subsequent works.
In view of this, with the coming commencement of HSR operation and cooperation with Government on urging private entities to participate in construction of public work, the reported content in previous issues on planning of the overall network is no longer consistent with present status; thus it is necessary to review the plan. The case is considered by the Bureau on development per requirement of overall transportation in Taichung Metropolitan, which then reviews the MRT lines. In principle, the program is to be executed with sectional construction. On March 22,2004, the report for “Planning of priority lines in Taichung Metropolitan MRT System” was submitted to MOTC, who then transferred the report to Executive Yuan for assessment. The report suggested primary construction on the green line from HSR Taichung Station to Beitun of Taichung City. On 23rd November of the same year, execution was made per approval of the Executive Yuan and the program was renamed as “Taichung Metropolitan MRT System Wuri-Wenxin-Beitun Line Construction Project”.
(2)Description of the project
“Taichung Metropolitan MRT System Wuri-Wenxin-Beitun Line Construction Project”
Route Planning:
The route starts east from nearby the Bridge No. 2 of Songzhu Road in Beitun District to west along Songzhu Road;and turns southward to Beitun Road after across Taiwan Railway. Along the Beitun Road to the intersection of Section 4 of Wenxin Road, it turns west to Wenxin Road and Sections 3, 2 and 1 of Wenxin Road till near Wenxin Bridge No. 2 of Wenxin South Road. It continually crosses over the Tuku agricultural canal, passing through the vacant lot back of the Chung Shan Medical University, turning west to Jianguo N. Road, and continuing westward along the Jianguo N. Road. Finally, it crosses over the Huanzhong viaduct and Fazi River approaching to the Taichung MRT G17 Station in HSR Taichung Station area. The length is 16.71km in total. Among them, the elevated section is approximately 15.94km, and the ground section is approximately 0.77km. It passes administrative areas including Beitun Dist., N. Dist., Xitun Dist., Nantun Dist., S. Dist., Taichung City, and Wuri Township in Taichung County(as enclosed figure).
Station Planning:
The factors for completely considering the station location of this Project include transportation needs, local city development, route alignment concerns and economic and financial benefits. There are 16 elevated stations and 2 ground stations of this Project. According to the function planning of this Project, G17 Station will act the passenger transfer hub of HSR Taichung Station and TRA Wuri New Station; G4 Station and G13 Station will be planned as the common transfer station for TRA Songzhu Station and Daqing Station. In addition, considering the need of operation and maintenance, the west side of Han River in Beitun District has been established a maintenance depot, Beitun Depot, for this Project (as enclosed table).
Cost and Schedule of the Project:
A total cost of NT$ 48.593 billion (totally NT$59.337 billion including land acquisition cost) for this project is jointly provided by the central and local governments, where the central government bears NT$ 32.83 billion, and the Taichung City Government bears NT$ 26.50 billion (including land), and the Taichung County Government bears NT$ 3.78 billion (including land). It is scheduled to conduct the E&M System turnkey contracting and civil’pre-work contracting of this Project in 2009. The target date of operation is planned in December 2020. It will carry out the availability, reliability, and maintainability tests after the operation and thus the schedule of this Project will be completed until December 2022.
Status:
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has approved the final text of environmental impact statement on July 14, 2005 by the letter of file No. huan-shu-tsong-zi 0940052011. Then EPA has approved the final text implementation of constructional environmental protection on September 7, 2006 by the letter of file No. Huan-shu-du-zi 0950069913. The 1-4 season reports of pre-construction environmental protection monitor plan have been completed and sent to the EPA for review that from 2009. It will be succeeded to conduct by Department of Rapid Transit Systems, TCG; for the environmental difference analysis.
The entire basic engineering design tasks among the first-stage general consulting service of this Project from 2005 to 2007 has been completed. And tasks related to detailed design review of the second-stage general consulting service has been conducted from July 2007; as for the detailed design tasks of civil engineering for bids DG01, DG02 and DG03 have been carried out from July 2007 and the middle-term design results was reported in October 2008. The follow-up engineering will succeed to be conducted by Department of Rapid Transit Systems, TCG.
Considering this Project going to enter the construction stage and in order to sufficiently use current work force of related agencies, Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has commissioned Department of Rapid Transit Systems, TCG to succeed the continuous design and construction of this Project on November 15, 2008 according to the provisions of Paragraph 3, Article 13 of Mass Rapid Transit Law.
Since there were some changes of work contents of this Project that the engineering funds and schedule of the project should be amended accordingly. BOHSR had prepared "The Amended Project" on January 8, 2009 and reported to MOTC transferring to Executive Yuan for approval. Council for Economic Planning and Development had held the 1356th Review Committee and passed the amendment of this Project on April 20, 2009. Executive Yuan has approved it on May 13, 2009 that Department of Rapid Transit Systems, TCG will succeed to conduct this Project.
Taichung City Government as the competent authority of this Project, should, either establish an operation organization or after screening, approve private investment to establish an operation organization in order to carry out the operation according to related regulations of Mass Rapid Transit Law.
Station
|
Station Location |
---|---|
Beitun Depot
|
Near the border of Songzhu Road and Songzhu No. 2 Bridge (beside the Han River) |
G0
|
Within Beitun Depot |
G3
|
Near the intersection of Songzhu Road and Jiushe Lane |
G4
|
At Beitun Road near the Jiushe Park |
G5
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road, XingAn Road and Tianjin Road |
G6
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Chongde Road |
G7
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Daya Road |
G8
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Henan Road |
G8a
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Yinghua Road |
G9
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Taizhongkang Road |
G10
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Dayeh Road |
G10a
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and xiangshang Road |
G11
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin Road and Wuquan W. Road |
G12
|
Near the intersection of Wenxin S. Road., and Wenxin S. 5th Road, close to Nanyuan Park |
G13
|
Near Jianguo N. Road and Yongshun Road, close to Daqing Station of Taiwan Railway |
G14
|
At Jianguo N. Road and near the 2ndroad of Taichung Life Circle |
G15
|
At Jianguo N. Road and near Land 64 of Xinghua Street |
G16
|
Near the intersection of Jianguo N. Road and Guangjih Road |
G17
|
At the special area of HRS Taichung Station |
Attached table: Stations List