Authorities aim to reopen Keelung landslide road by June 11

Taipei, June 4 (CNA) An intersection between Beining Road and an entrance to Chaojing Park in Keelung that was affected by a landslide Monday is expected to reopen to traffic by June 11, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said Tuesday.

According to the ministry's Highway Bureau, workers aim to clear rocks and other debris by the early hours of June 11 and complete safety checks on the slope adjacent to the road by noon on June 11.

The bureau said that it had installed rockfall protection nets and barriers along high-risk areas varying slope heights along sections of the road affected by the landslide and would bring in consultants to reassess the situation in the coming days.

A diversion is available for road users starting at the 73K+380 marker of Provincial Highway No. 2, which travels through Provincial Highway No. 2D and Fongjia Road (city route 102), Tiaohe Street (north 123), before reconnecting with the Highway No. 2 at the 69K+500 marker.

The landslide occurred at around 2:30 p.m. Monday, falling rocks directly hitting at least four cars, affecting a total of seven sedans, two trucks and one motorcycle and injuring two people, according to authorities.

In a remodeling of the incident, it was determined that the rocks fell from a height of 40 meters, causing a landslide of 4,400 square meters in surface area and rubble of around 12,000 cubic meters, Highway Bureau Director General Chen Wen-juei (陳文瑞) told reporters Monday night.

There were around 50 large boulders at the scene, with the biggest weighing up to 100 tonnes, which needed to be broken down before being cleared out, Chen said.

In a statement Tuesday, the bureau said it had dispatched eight crusher machines, four dump trucks, one water truck and several engineers to the site for clearance operations.

One of the men injured at the site was a 46-year-old surnamed Wang (王), who had been trapped in a truck. He suffered a head injury as well as a hematoma in his abdomen.

Wu Chun-yi (吳俊毅), a physician at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Keelung branch, said Tuesday that Wang was in stable condition following surgery but would be kept in intensive care for further observations.

The other person injured in the incident, a 40-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳) who suffered fractures on his shoulder blades and ribs, may be discharged Tuesday, Wu said.

Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) told reporters Monday that he would ask city legal staff to pursue maximum compensation for those affected by the landslide as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Transportation and Communications Minister Li Men-yen (李孟諺) said Tuesday that he suspected the combined effects of recent earthquakes and continuous heavy rain may have caused the landslide.