TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Heavy machinery has reached a remote barrier lake in Hualien after repeated attempts were hindered by landslides and earthquakes, with a construction team now beginning work to lower water levels, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said Saturday.
FANCA said a construction team equipped with excavators and other heavy machinery reached a barrier lake on Mataian Creek and began dredging an overflow channel after overcoming difficult terrain deep in the mountains, per UDN.
According to the FANCA Hualien Branch, the landscape of Mataian Creek changed drastically following the initial flooding disaster, requiring the construction of a temporary access road along the riverbed. Jing Fu Construction (晶富營造公司), which previously handled emergency work at the Taroko barrier lake, was commissioned for the project, which is about 344 times larger than the company’s earlier undertaking.
The first attempt to drain the barrier lake began with site exploration on Dec. 3. On Dec. 15, a team of 19 personnel and nine medium-to-large machines, including excavators, an articulated dump truck, a bulldozer, and a loader, advanced upstream along the riverbed.
When the team was about 500 meters from the overflow point at the top of the landslide dam, part of the slope suddenly collapsed, instantly burying three excavators and one articulated dump truck. All operators were able to escape in time and were safely evacuated.
After about a week of reassessment and preparation, a second attempt was launched with 14 personnel and five medium-to-large machines. The team advanced slowly along the riverbed on Friday and Saturday, fortunately avoiding a setback after a large earthquake on Saturday, as the team later reached the top of the landslide dam and established a relatively safe working platform.
Due to the remote terrain, communication with the site has been limited to radio contact, with drones deployed for aerial photography to monitor progress.
Huang Chun-tse (黃群策), head of FANCA’s Hualien Office, said Mataian Creek was originally strewn with boulders and featured a steep elevation drop but has since been filled with large amounts of silt following the flooding disaster. As a result, only tracked heavy machinery can reach the site.
Huang said the next phase will involve dredging to create an overflow outlet that will gradually restore the river’s original flow. He stressed that worker safety remains the top priority.
According to Huang, the water volume in the landslide-dammed lake has remained between 280,000 and 300,000 cubic meters in recent weeks, about 0.3% of its pre-overflow level. He said the main challenges ahead include unstable slopes and more than 200 million cubic meters of silt deposited in the riverbed.
The project was originally expected to take about 50 days. However, with machinery now having reached the top of the dam, progress can be accelerated. Huang said several more days will be needed to fully assess conditions at the overflow outlet and determine whether dredging operations can proceed smoothly.
