《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ko orders new evacuation plan; clashes at dome site

Farglory Construction Co （遠雄建設） has two weeks to provide an evacuation plan for the entire Taipei Dome （台北大巨蛋） complex, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） said yesterday.

“The original evacuation plan only included the dome itself, without any plan for the surrounding area,” Ko said. “This means there will be problems if construction continues.”

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Ko said earlier this week that the city was considering clearing out some of the complex’s planned office space to open up additional evacuation routes. He said yesterday that Farglory had two weeks to submit a new evacuation plan for the entire structure, while the city conducts its own re-evaluation.

Ko added that city is “prepared for the worst-case scenario,” with the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 Universiade moved to the Taipei Track and Field Stadium （台北田徑場） if the Taipei Dome is unavailable due to construction delays.

Meanwhile, fighting broke out early yesterday morning between Farglory workers and activists from the Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union after the corporation attempted to forcibly begin the transplantation of trees next to the construction site. Environmental activists have camped out next to the site since April last year to prevent the trees from being removed.

“Farglory took Taipei’s extremely tragic airplane crash as an ‘opportunity from heaven’ to conduct illegal construction and commit violence against our volunteers,” union policy director Arthur Yo （游藝） said, adding that the corporation lacked the required permit to conduct night-time construction.

He said hundreds of Farglory construction workers had streamed out of the construction site at about 1:30am to erect metal paneling around the trees and begin the root-cutting process.

While activists fought to stop the workers, police stood by until daybreak, he said.

Later yesterday, union activists held up medical certificates proving their injuries, displaying scrapes and ripped clothing.

In response, Farglory public relations department deputy manager Jacky Yang （楊舜欽） said the firm’s actions were both legal and in accordance with the city-mandated procedures for tree transplantation, displaying a permit for the trees’ removal issued by the city government immediately following preliminary negotiations late last month.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi （鄧家基）, who heads the city’s side of negotiations with Farglory, condemned the firm’s actions.

While acknowledging that the city had tentatively agreed to assist the firm in transplanting the trees, he said that city help was conditional on the renegotiation of the firm’s contract being completed and the firm arriving at a “consensus” with environmental activists. He said the firm had thus far failed to meet both conditions.

Teng also called the timing of Farglory’s actions “extremely inappropriate,” being so soon after Wednesday’s plane crash, adding that the city would cancel the previously issued permit and require the firm to postpone the trees’ transplantation.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES