Following the protest of thousands of Hualien County residents in Taipei for speedy repairs of the Suhua Highway, the Environmental Protection Administration has given approval under the agreement of meeting the environmental standards.

If the evaluation goes smoothly, people can expect the start of the construction by the end of the year.

As around thousands of residents from Hualien protested in Taipei, Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) special team approved conditionally the improvement project of Suhua Highway in the preliminary assessment meeting under the circumstances that the project meets environmental requirements.

The plenary environmental impact assessment will likely to take place in five days.

The improvement project includes new roads, overpasses and tunnels that are 38.4 km in total, which will save the driving time between Suao and Tachingshui by 48 minutes.

Around 60 percent of the improved sections will be short and long tunnels. The project is expected to cost 46.5 billion NT dollars and will complete at the end of 2017.

Even though the project has been approved during the preliminary meeting, many people, including environmentalists and geologists, are questioning if the construction is feasible.

It is believed that the construction over the geologically fragile Suhua Highway will be more difficult that the construction of Hsueh-shan Tunnel which connects Taipei and Yilan.

The construction team will have to overcome the problems such as tunnel inflow, collapse and ventilation.

It looks like the government still has a lot of work to do to make the improvement project workable and offer a safe way home for people in Hualien.

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