Taipei councillor questions Taipei-New Taipei coordination as Danbei Road construction sparks complaints

Danbei Road construction has become a point of friction between Taipei and New Taipei, with Taipei councillor Huang Shan-shan asking whether the two mayors are actually communicating.

Huang said residents have faced repeated problems around the project, including incomplete traffic-management plans, tree relocation, regional internet outages and damage to underground utility lines. She cited a full-day outage during tree removal on June 11, a regional outage during road widening on Aug. 29, and a damaged line on Aug. 31. She also questioned whether construction crews had properly displayed the required road permits.

The project crosses the two cities and is entering a more substantial construction phase. Huang warned that traffic on Dadu Road is heavy and that future work could have a broad effect. She called for stronger joint governance, clearer responsibility when problems occur, and closer checks on utility maps and construction procedures. “Don’t wait until the other side has already crossed into your territory before saying Taipei and New Taipei are communicating,” she said in substance during a city council session.

Mayor Chiang Wan-an said contractors hired by New Taipei might not be familiar with Taipei’s rules or the work sites. He said Taipei’s Public Works and Transportation departments would instruct their New Taipei counterparts that contractors must give advance notice and meet Taipei’s requirements. Public Works Commissioner Huang Yi-ping said officials would review maps for five major utility systems with the New Taipei contractor, while Transportation Commissioner Hsieh Ming-hung promised stricter traffic-control requirements.

New Taipei’s New Construction Office said the June 11 and Aug. 29 outages were unrelated to the Danbei Road project. It said a contractor damaged a shallow-buried utility line while widening and excavating a greenbelt on Aug. 31, but notified the utility operator immediately and completed repairs by noon. The two city governments have an instant-notification group, and Taipei invited New Taipei officials to a Sept. 2 meeting to strengthen advance notice and reduce disruption to traffic and residents.