The Taiwan Coast Guard used to build the Taiping Pier, which will carry the giant mixed earth cube caisson from Taiwan by sea. Photo／Provided by Taiwan Coast Guard
The Taiwan Coast Guard will start a major construction project on Taiping Island in the Spratly Islands this year, running the dredging of the port side of Taiping Pier and the whole construction of the port area and the whole construction of new barracks. The “Sea of Blue” project will be combined with the patrol of the Spratly Islands to send patrol ships to run the security task of transporting materials needed for the project to Taiping Island to “avoid other countries interfering with the project and transport ships.
This year, the Taiwan Coast Guard will use the most favorable bidding to start running the “Nansha Taiping Island Harbor Side Dredging and Pier Refurbishment Project” to refurbish and strengthen the existing pier function on Taiping Island, on the grounds of making the island a “humanitarian relief, international transportation and scientific research base. However, the planned site is up to 1600 km from Taiwan Island, the island can not provide construction resources, the initial construction phase planning all the resources need to be supplied by sea from Taiwan Island, the transport distance is long, and the recent rise in tensions in the South China Sea may lead to increased maritime transport difficulties.
The Taiwan Coast Guard said that the wharf construction method is similar to the previous one, and the concrete blocks and wave-absorbing blocks required for the planned new construction of the inner dike and shoreline can still be prefabricated in Taiwan and then shipped to Taiping Island for lifting and placing.
The Taiwan Coast Guard said that the transportation of engineering materials and equipment and the risk control of possible reactions from surrounding countries are also included in the criteria for the selection of the most favorable bid for the turnkey project to find the best manufacturer that can complete the project. In order to avoid other countries to interfere with the project and transport ships, Taiwan Coast Guard Fleet Sub-Department to implement the “Blue Sea Project” are planning at least one voyage per month to patrol the waters of the East Nansha Islands, the engineering phase will be combined with the operation of the Blue Sea Project, by the sea patrol vessels to assist in the task of material transport security.
At present, the Taiwan Coast Guard operates the “blue sea project” ships, by more than 1,000 tons of large ships in rotation, such as 3,000-ton Yilan, Kaohsiung, 2,000-ton and Star, Weixing, New Taipei, Tainan, 1,000-ton Taoyuan, Miaoli, Pingtung, Taitung ships or seven, eight, nine patrol boats. These ships have armaments such as four-zero fast guns and two-zero machine guns.
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