Taiwan to impose traffic control measures after entire Southern Cross-Island Highway reopens to traffic

台灣將在南橫公路全線通車後採管制通行措施

Only cars and motorcycles will be allowed to enter the section between Tianchi and Xiangyang from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The last stretch of the Southern Cross-Island Highway in southern Taiwan that is still closed for repair will be open to traffic at the end of April, but traffic control measures will be put in place to ensure safety and decrease the impact of traffic on wild animals, CNA reported.

A large portion of the Southern Cross-Island Highway, which is the mountainous section of Provincial Highway 20, was closed after August 2009, when it suffered extensive damage during Typhoon Morakot.

After nearly 13 years of repair, the entire highway except for the 20-kilometer stretch between Tianchi and Xiangyang, which is still under repair, has been reopened to traffic.

However, traffic control has been enforced on the section between Meishan and Tianchi, allowing only regular cars and motorcycles to enter from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. while buses and bicycles are barred.

Taiwan’s highway authority, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH), told CNA that it plans to also allow only cars and motorcycles to enter the section between Tianchi and Xiangyang from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. after the section reopens at the end of April.

When the entire Southern Cross-Island Highway is open, the traffic control time of the section between Meishan and Tianchi will be adjusted to be the same as the hours for the section between Tianchi and Xiangyang, the DGH said.

The DGH told CNA that there are two reasons for imposing the traffic control measures: first, to ensure safety as it often rains in the mountains during afternoons; and second, to decrease the impact of traffic on wild animals that are endemic to the area, such as monkeys, Swinhoe's Pheasant, and Formosan yellow-throated martens, per CNA.