Heavy traffic forecast for Freeway No. 5 Friday afternoon

Taipei, Feb. 9 (CNA) Heavy traffic has been forecast for the southbound part of National Freeway No. 5 on Friday afternoon as more and more travelers hit the road for their traditional family reunions on Lunar New Year's Eve, according to the Freeway Bureau.

In particular, the bureau said, the southbound section of Freeway No. 5 connecting Nangang in Taipei to Toucheng in Yilan County will see traffic jams in the afternoon of Friday, the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday.

As of 2 p.m., southbound traffic entering the Xueshan Tunnel on Freeway No. 5 was somewhat backed up but moving at a speed of 40-60 kilometers per hour inside the tunnel.

Few other parts of Taiwan's freeway system had ground to a halt early Friday afternoon except for the southbound lanes between Hukou to Hsinchu on Freeway No. 1.

As of 11 a.m., the bureau had reported a traffic volume of 30.2 million vehicle-kilometers (MVK) on Taiwan's freeways, and forecast the total for all of Friday to 94 MVK, which it said would still be tolerable.

There were some accidents on Taiwan's highways on Friday.

According to the bureau, a multi-vehicle pile-up occurred on Freeway No. 1's elevated northbound section toward Taoyuan International Airport at 2:46 a.m., involving one truck and two passenger cars, which caused congestion.

The traffic interruption was removed at around 4:20 a.m.

At 9:15 a.m., two passenger cars ran into each other at around the 217.2 km mark of the southbound section of Freeway No. 1, causing a 2-km traffic jam, the bureau said. The congestion was removed quickly at 9:18 a.m.

Another pile-up, involving four passenger cars, happened at the 310-km mark on the northbound section of Freeway No. 1 at 9:40 a.m., resulting in a 5-km traffic jam, the bureau said, adding that the congestion was removed at around 10:05 a.m.

The bureau suggested that drivers use its 1968 app, or listen to up-to-minute reports from Police Broadcasting Services for immediate information about traffic conditions on Taiwan's freeways.