At Thursday's weekly Cabinet meeting, Premier Chen Chien-jen received a briefing from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on the progress of a nationwide program of road bridge safety inspections and remedial actions. The premier said that to date, rectification works have been completed on all of the 101 bridges assessed to be potentially dangerous, improving safety and service performance for road users.
Following the collapse of Nanfang'ao Bridge in Yilan County in October 2019, the Executive Yuan instructed the relevant authorities to carry out a comprehensive nationwide audit of potentially dangerous bridges, and on February 14, 2020 approved a NT$1.426 billion (US$45.6 million) three-year plan to provide assistance to county and city governments in expediting the reconstruction or reinforcement of 101 damaged or aging bridges.
For road users' safety, bridge management authorities must carry out periodic inspections, the premier said. Accordingly, the Executive Yuan on July 21, 2020 issued operational directions for bridge maintenance and management. The directions require all road bridges to be incorporated into a nationwide management system, under which bridge management authorities must conduct regular inspections and maintenance to uphold the safety of bridges under their purview.