Taiwan Highspeed Rail

At the beginning of this millennium, if you wanted to travel from the northern Taipeh, capital city of Taiwan, to Kaohsiung, the islands’ industrial center in the south, you had to allow for a very long travelling time. Hence, in the year 2000, construction works started on the High-speed Railway Line to connect these two cities on the west coast.

At that time this railway project was listed as the largest infrastructure project in the world. This major construction project was divided into 12 lots; and HOCHTIEF Construction AG was involved in a joint venture to design and build a segment of approx. 40 kilometers length (Lot C 250); located close to the city of Taichung.

The ambitious task was to complete the project within only 50 months, including all the different types of segments, such as concrete bridges, steel bridges and tunnels in a partly densely populated area and of high earthquake risk. Roughly 90% of lot C250 had to be built as viaducts.

Since the completion of the projects in 2005, the designated journey of 350 kilometers, takes only 90 minutes. At a maximum speed of 350 km/h, the Japanese rival of the German ICE, the Shinkansen, carries approx. 300.000 passengers a day.

Facts and Figures:

• Track length: total 350 km, segment Los C250 about 40 km
• Construction period: 2000 - 2004
• Total investment: approx. 15.9 billion EURO
• Contract value: approx. 730 million EURO
• Personnel: At its peak about 2600 workers & employees on site