By KHT Staff
KAOHSIUNG — A retaining wall collapsed on Songfu Street in Siaogang District (小港區) on Friday, Aug. 28, sending soil and debris across the road, burying several motorcycles and forcing residents from nearby homes. No injuries were reported.
The Public Television Service reported that the affected section was about 20 meters long. The Kaohsiung Public Works Bureau preliminarily assessed that prolonged rain had saturated the slope and increased pressure on the wall, but a detailed inspection was still required.
The collapse also prompted a dispute between the city’s mayoral contenders. According to a Liberty Times report carried by Yahoo News, the Kaohsiung branch of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or KMT, questioned why Democratic Progressive Party legislator and mayoral candidate Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) had not appeared at the site immediately.
Lai’s team said it had monitored the situation from the outset, contacted the city’s Public Works Bureau and other agencies, and worked to ensure residents were accommodated. Lai visited the site Saturday to speak with residents and assess reconstruction needs.
KMT mayoral candidate Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) inspected the site Saturday morning with city councilors and the local neighborhood chief. She urged the city government to consider widening the warning area and to complete a disaster-risk assessment as soon as possible, the United Daily News reported.
Lai said a preliminary estimate placed the cost of rebuilding the wall at tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars. He said he had contacted the secretary-general of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s Cabinet, to seek central disaster-recovery funding and had asked the city government to submit a project proposal. The funding had not been confirmed.
He said the goal was to complete reconstruction before the next flood season, although the schedule remains subject to engineering assessments, funding and weather conditions. Lai also said the 34-year-old wall should not simply be restored to its previous condition and called for a broader review of the slope and additional reinforcement.
Emergency crews covered the exposed slope with tarps and removed trees considered at risk of falling. TVBS reported Saturday that the timetable for permanent repairs remained undetermined pending a professional assessment.
