Taichung Port to Accept Construction Surplus Soil; City Government Announces Operational Guidelines

(CNA, by reporter Hao Hsueh-ching, Taichung, June 10) In response to the upcoming start of construction surplus soil and rock acceptance operations at Taichung Port in July, the Taichung City Government today announced the "Taichung City Government Operational Guidelines for Transporting Non-Public Works Construction Surplus Soil and Rock to Taichung Port" to improve the end-to-end management system for soil and rock.

Li Zheng-wei, Director of the Taichung City Urban Development Bureau, explained that since the central government implemented a new end-to-end management system for construction surplus soil and rock on January 1, the central region has faced significant disposal pressure due to a lack of large-scale final disposal sites.

Li stated that the Executive Yuan recently announced that Taichung Port will begin acceptance operations on July 25. The Taiwan International Ports Corporation's Taichung Port Branch also issued its acceptance guidelines on June 4, opening up to receive construction surplus soil and rock from non-public works in the five central counties and cities of Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, and Yunlin.

To ensure the smooth operation of the subsequent acceptance and management mechanisms, Li pointed out that the city government completed the formulation of local complementary systems in advance and issued the "Taichung City Government Operational Guidelines for Transporting Non-Public Works Construction Surplus Soil and Rock to Taichung Port" as a basis for implementation.

The Urban Development Bureau explained that the subjects of these guidelines include legal soil and rock resource stacking and processing sites in Taichung, as well as private construction projects recommended by the city's competent authorities for public interest or compliance with city policy.

The Bureau stated that the content clearly defines mechanisms such as application procedures, soil quality testing, self-management, security deposits, management fees, GPS flow tracking, port access permit applications, and self-audits to ensure that the source of the soil is traceable, its quality is verifiable, its flow is trackable, and its transportation is manageable.

The Bureau noted that the city government has established short, medium, and long-term strategies for soil and rock disposal. In the short term, disposal capacity will be expanded through off-site temporary storage measures for construction projects and cross-county cooperation mechanisms such as the Lunwei temporary storage area in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park and the Dataoping soil and rock resource stacking site in Miaoli County. In the medium term, it will continue to inventory public land and projects requiring soil to provide space for reuse and disposal. In the long term, it will connect with the Taichung Port land reclamation project to gradually establish a stable and large-scale final disposal system in the central region. (Editor: Chang Ming-kun) 1150610