Hsuehshan Tunnel Breaks ThroughTaiwan's minister of transportation and communications Lin Ling-san pushed a button to detonate explosives, clearing away the final 2.8m of rock of the westbound tube of the Hsuehshan tunnel on 14th March. The 12.9 km Hsuehshan or Shueishan (Snow Mountain) tunnel, the longest road tunnel in southeast Asia and the fourth longest in the world when it opens, is part of the Taipei-Ilan expressway.The tunnelling work took more than 13 years to complete. Construction began in 1992 with a pilot tunnel to gauge the geographical features of the mountain. Drilling on the two main tunnels began in July 1993. The project faced 19 floods and 29 collapses of the excavation face during construction. The tunnel system consists of 57 tunnels, including two main tunnels for road traffic between Ilan and Taipei, 28 pedestrian connecting passages, located every 350 m, and eight vehicular tunnels, at every 1.5 km. At its deepest point, the tunnel lies 515 m below the surface.The Taipei-Ilan expressway, also referred to as the Peiyi expressway, will run from Nangang in Taipei to Suao in Ilan county, passing through Pinglin and Luodong on the way. The expressway will connect with National Freeway III, or the second north-south freeway, to the west, and to National Freeway V to the east. The tunnel will help cut driving time between Taipei and Ilan by 90 minutes.Travel from Taipei to Ilan will be reduced to just 30 minutes from the current two hours. The expressway is slated to open to the public by the end of next year, and drilling on the eastbound tunnel is expected to be concluded by September. Click tw/14. Read E-News Weekly 12/2002. 13/04.