Suhua Highway Improvement Project
Suhua Highway Improvement Project (Chinese: 蘇花公路改善計畫), or simply called Suhuagai (Chinese: 蘇花改), previous called The Project for Substitute of Suhua Highway (Chinese: 蘇花公路替代計畫) or Suhuati(Chinese: 蘇花替), is a major improvement of dangerous sections of Suhua Highway, alters of Suhua Freeway project by two lanes and lower speed limit.
Connecting northern and eastern Taiwan, only the Suhua Highway labeled Provincial Highway No. 9 connects the areas. Provincial Highway No. 9 is known for its mountainous range terrains.[1] For its curved route and weak geology, landslides and interruptions usually happen when typhoon or heavy rain strikes, thus the government gets many complaints by eastern residents.[2]
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has planned the Suhua Freeway in the 1990s, but its mega construction and many ecosensitive areas alongside have been argued for decades. So it is planned out as Suhuati, then renamed as Suhuagai, by constructing bridges and tunnels to three dangerous sections such as Suao—Dongao, Nanao—Heping, and Heping—Daqingshui, is priority for the improvement, lengthening above as 9.8 km, 20 km, and 8.6 km, costing 46.5 billion NT dollars and taking five years to build.
This project has been started construction in 2011, and it has a five-year construction period. It is expected to be completed in 2018.[3]
