Taiwan hsuehshan tunnel - discovery documentary

[thyrdrail]

really interesting documentary about the construction of Taiwan’s Hsuehshan Tunnel on the Discovery Channel for those who haven’t seen it. Multi-part series of videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6vaAPkmcMA

[Jack_Burton]

While excavating the tunnel, engineers encountered difficult geological problems like fractured rock and massive inflows of water, which caused severe delays. One of the three TBMs on the westbound tunnel was buried by a ground collapse. In order to speed up the tunnel boring, an additional working interface in Interchange Station No. 2 (under Ventilation Shaft No. 2) was built. Along the tunnel alignment, there are six major faults, numerous fracture zones, and high-pressure groundwater. Hence, serious tunnel collapses with groundwater flooding took place periodically during tunnel construction. Altogether, 25 lives were lost during 15 years of construction.

Taiwanese construction companies are well-known for their ineptitude and graft in construction projects. Just as bad as the Big Dig.

Be careful about going through that tunnel, or standing in or near a Taiwanese-built building.

I have extensive experience and expertise in construction, China, and Chinese history. Taiwanese construction companies are one of the scariest, most pathetic, dishonest, incompetent to work with. Bunch of pigs.

The project is funded by private means, billed as the largest Build-Operate-Transfer project in the world, but the development corporation THSRC consistently failed to meet its funding targets on time. The project has also been dogged by repeated controversy, including allegations of poor quality construction, claims of unresolved safety concerns (due to three derailments during the tests in early November 2006) by THSRC oppositions, and the one year long delay.

In Taichung, the 14-story condominium tower—the “salad oil can” building—suffered the vertical collapse of several lower “soft” stories during the earthquake. The collapse exposed large brass cans used as filler and raised questions about local construction practices. The use of tin cans or other light materials to fill in tight spaces between beams and fasciae is “not uncommon” in Taiwan, but had nothing to do with the failure of this particular building, says Chia-Ming Uang, an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego, who examined the building.

[quote]Many of the low-rise residential buildings damaged by the quake had reinforced concrete frames with masonry infill walls. Investigating engineers blame a lack of ductile detailing for many of the failures. Although specific ductile detailing requirements are outlined in the design codes—including closely spaced transverse column reinforcements with 135-degree seismic hooks, staggered longitudinal rebar splicing located away from the column ends, and transverse reinforcements in the beam-to-column joints—the details are often not implemented properly or are skipped altogether, according to engineers who have investigated the failed structures[/quote].

Shoddy workmanship, cutting corners, graft and corruption are all part and parcel of the Taiwanese construction industry.