New Taipei, contractor point fingers over quake-damaged metro line

New Taipei, Jan. 3 (CNA) Contractor BES Engineering Corp. on Friday denied New Taipei's claims that a failure to follow blueprints caused extensive damage to the New Taipei Metro's Circular Line during a magnitude 7.2 earthquake last April.

Earlier Friday, New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) announced the city's intention to seek NT$1.927 billion (US$58.45 million) in damages from BES, based on the findings of a report compiled by the Taipei-based Chinese Society of Structure Engineering.

At a news conference, Hou said that the amount would cover the NT$796 million spent to reopen the line, as well as NT$645 million for related repairs and NT$486 million to cover business losses and replacement bus services.

According to Lee Cheng-an (李政安), head of the New Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems, the Chinese Society of Structure Engineering's analysis of the damage to the elevated section of Circular Line in New Taipei showed that BES had not followed the approved design, leading to structural failure.

The force of the strong earthquake caused box girders to become disconnected at nine locations between Banxin and Jingan stations, as well as other damage, such as deformed or snapped tracks, Lee told the news conference.

In a statement, BES refuted the claims, saying it had followed the blueprints and that the structural damage cited by New Taipei pointed to a design issue.

Having worked with the city authorities to repair the damage, BES said that it hoped to find a mutually satisfactory outcome to the compensation issue.

Services between the Circular Line's Banqiao and Zhonghe stations, suspended since the April 3 earthquake, resumed on Dec. 12 last year.