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The law enforcement of 5 kilometers long
Pakwashan Tunnel and 12.9 kilometers Hsuehshan Tunnel are most
crucial and challenging work for us.
On July 27, 2005, French
court found 13 individuals and companies guilty of manslaughter over
the Mont Blanc tunnel fire that killed 39 people in 1999. The cause
of the fire is disputed. Different accounts report it to be a
cigarette stub carelessly thrown on to the truck, a mechanical
fault, or poor maintenance of the truck's engine. The closest smoke
detector was out of order and French emergency services do not use
the same radio frequency as those inside the tunnel. Among them, the
head of tunnel security, was given a six-month jail term, plus 24
months suspended. The tunnel between France and Italy was badly
damaged and remained closed for three years. We are meeting our
challenge of law enforcement in two long tunnels right now. The
Pakwashan Tunnel (pronounced Bah-Gwa-Shan), a 5 kilometer long
twin-tube expressway tunnel on the Hanpao-Tsaotun East-West
Expressway linking the two counties of Changhua and Nantou in
central Taiwan. The Pakwashan Tunnel which we patrol from March,
2005 is the second longest roadway tunnel in Taiwan. The
12.9-kilometer Hsuehshan Tunnel, the world's fifth longest tunnel,
will be the most crucial and challenging work. The Tunnel is at the
31-kilometer Taipei-Ilan Expressway, which will be finished at the
end of the year. It starts at Nankang in Taipei City, runs southeast
through the Hsuehshan Mountain Range, links Taipei Basin and Lanyang
Plain, and ends at Toucheng in Ilan County.
In other
countries, there’re plenty of reports concerned with risk
assessment, risk analysis and risk management and law enforcement
for long-road tunnels. On the contrary, the researches in this field
are still rare in our nation. We still have lots to learn.
Although we have the state of art
facilities such as tunnel radio broadcasting, mobile phone
receptions, traffic control system and surveillance cameras, we need
road user to cooperate with us and follow driving rules.
We anticipate there are many challenges
ahead. Any advice will be warmly welcome. |
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