In 2020, the country officially announced the National Transportation Network Planning Outline, which mentioned the transportation route from Fuzhou to Taipei, and put the construction of the Taiwan Strait channel on the agenda.
Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Sun Jun, said in the article "Thoughts on Several Key Issues in the Planning Scheme of Taiwan Straits Tunnel Engineering": Taiwan Straits will adopt a tunnel scheme.
1. The route plan for the Taiwan Strait channel
cross the Taiwan Strait to build a channel, connecting Taiwan Island with the mainland. This idea was first proposed by Tsinghua University in 1998. Later, after many discussions by experts and scholars on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, three solutions were formed, namely:
(1) North Line: Fuqing —Pingtan Bridge—Pingtan Island to Hsinchu Undersea Tunnel, which is about 122 kilometers long.
(2) Midline: Putian — Nanridao —Taiwanese Miaomi, about 128 kilometers long.
(3) South Line: Xiamen —Kinmen—Penghu— Chiayi , about 174 kilometers long.
1. Which route plan is the best?
has many factors that affect route selection, mainly considering geology, natural conditions such as earthquake disaster , line length, pros and cons of cross-sea transportation mode, project durability, construction methods and cycles, cost considerations such as project investment, operation and maintenance, national grand strategy and military uses. Overall, experts believe that the most economical and stable solution to establish the Taiwan Strait channel is the Northern Line.
2. From the perspective of earthquakes, the northern line is optimal
North line: There has been no major earthquakes above magnitude 7 in history. At present, the earthquake activity is average. It is only about magnitude 5 and the frequency of occurrence is not large.
midline: There have been no major earthquakes above magnitude 7 in history, but earthquakes of moderate intensity around magnitude 5 have occurred, and the frequency of occurrence is slightly higher.
South Line: Only moderate-intensity earthquakes of about magnitude 5 have occurred.
3. From the perspective of route length - the North Line
0 North Line plan is short and the project investment is relatively small; the South Line is the largest in length and the investment is also the largest.
4. From the perspective of the structure of crossing the sea - the preferred tunnel, the industry's top experts roughly estimate that it will take more than 15 years to repair
(1) bridge solution : It is more friendly to users, with many advantages, but crossing the Taiwan Strait is vulnerable to severe weather at sea.
(2) tunnel solution : The biggest advantage is that it is all-weather pass, basically not affected by harsh meteorological and geological conditions such as wind, rain, fog, and earthquakes. It also has almost no obstacles or impacts on offshore engineering and shipping, but it is closed in the seabed environment, and breathability, rescue, etc. are easily affected.
5. From the perspective of cross-sea transportation mode - the preferred tunnel railway
North Line tunnel plan is extremely long, and highway tunnels, railway (high-speed rail) tunnels and other solutions can be considered.
(1) Passage efficiency. The speed limit for driving a car in a highway tunnel is 80 km/h. The speed limit for using a railway tunnel can be doubled to more than 160 km/h, and the speed limit for high-speed railways is higher. This seems that the railway traffic efficiency is higher than that of highway traffic.
(2) The probability of a fire caused by a multi-vehicle accident in a highway tunnel is much higher than that in a railway. Highway tunnels require the construction of multiple super-large ventilation shafts in the middle of the strait, but the Taiwan Strait channel is frequently open to navigation, which must be recognized by the international shipping industry.
6. From the perspective of strategic value, when building bridges, they are vulnerable to attack in war situations. After all, bridges are in the open place, and the tunnel cannot be seen at the bottom of the sea and is easily hidden in the dark. In the state of war, just be sure to defend the sea and Shanghai around the tunnel, it is enough! The bridge must guard against long-range attacks such as missiles and on a global scale!
Personally believe that the tunnel solution should be preferred. The construction of the Taiwan Strait channel should not only consider economic benefits, but also strategic value. The subsea tunnel is divided into four pipe channels, namely automobile channels, two sets of EMUs and backup (military channels). The backup (military) is not open at ordinary times and only open for military purposes.
