News

    The side slope protective construction project of Nantou County Route-131 commenced in August last year and was completed recently. To promote road safety, Nantou County Government conducted the first domestic in situ falling rock interception test on the morning of the 29th to simulate rocks falling perpendicularly at the height of 15 meters onto the protective screen to test the shielding function of the protective screen. County Magistrate Lin Ming-chen said the successful result of the test can be provided as a reference for county and city road maintenance to promote road safety.

    County Route-131 is the main road connecting Puli Township to Yuchi Township and Shuili Township and important access road to scenic areas such as Minghu, Snake Kiln and Checheng. In November two years ago, in the Niudong Road section of Shuitou Village Township, a vehicle was hit by falling rocks. People were injured in the accident. To avoid any further accident from happening, Nantou County Government reported to and secured the fund of NT$ 35,000,000 in total from the Executive Yuan to construct 2 layers of interception screen for falling rocks.

    County Magistrate Lin Ming-chen said, at the position of 4K+600 in County Route-131, there are frequent falling rocks. After the accident, the Nantou County Government’s Department of Public Works and Public Works Committee surveyed the site. Originally, a tunnel was planned to be built at the site. However, due to insufficient road space, interception screens for falling rocks were built. In addition, to promote road users’ confidence in the ability of this falling rocks interception project, when the construction was contracted, a world premier in situ falling rocks interception test was added to simulate falling rocks with the weight of 1.1 metric tons falling from 30 meters above the ground falling onto the interception screen from the height of 15 meters from it. The test result was very successful.

    County councilors Lin Fang-yu and Mayor Liu Chi-fan of Yuchi Township attended the test at the site. The Department of Public Works expressed that the protective construction uses a “passive” falling rock screen, which is different from the traditional fixed-type one that shields from falling rocks directly and actively. Instead, the passive interception screen is stretchable and can absorb the force of falling rocks. When rocks fall, we can open the screen and it will resume to its original condition for further use.

    The Department of Public Works expressed that the protective screen consists of 2 layers. The upper layer is 6 meters above the ground and 170 meters long. The lower layer is 3 meters above the ground and 50 meters long. With the total of 546 square meters, it can take the weight of 2000KG The Department of Public Works pointed out that considering the safety of construction workers and road users, Nantou County Government invited related departments to the pre-construction briefing and conferences to discuss the road closing and control schemes and the suspension of bus services at a particular time. With the support of the local councilors and village heads, the construction project was carried out smoothly.