Kinmen Bridge to be completed in September: Engineering office

Kinmen, June 22 (CNA) A bridge that is being built between Kinmen Island and Lieyu is on track to be finished by September and open to traffic in October, the government engineering office in charge of the project said Wednesday.

The 4.8-kilometer Kinmen Bridge, which is Taiwan's first sea bridge, runs west to east, stretching from Hupu Road in Lieyu Township to Cihu Road in Jinning Township.

As of June 17, work on the bridge was 97.46 percent completed, and Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kuo-tsai (王國財) was expected to inspect the project on Saturday, according to his ministry's engineering office.

The bridge is expected to be completed in September and will open to traffic in October, once the domestic COVID-19 situation allows, according to the engineering office.

The project includes five towers, one of which was illuminated during a lighting field test on Tuesday, the office said.

The test showed that there was some room for improvement of the lighting effects of the full-color LED projectors, it said.

The construction project, which was launched in 2012, had been plagued by problems such as inexperienced of contractors and construction crews, which resulted in contracts being terminated twice, according to the Freeway Bureau.

In 2016, a new contract was undertaken and construction work began again in December that year, according to the Freeway Bureau.