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Taipei Dome completion delayed until end of 2015

Lauly Li

The China Post

Publication Date : 19-03-2013

 

Construction on the Taipei Dome will be completed toward the end of 2015 - a year and a half later than previously estimated, Farglory Dome Co. Ltd. Chairman Chao Teng-hsiung said yesterday.

Taipei urban development official Kao Wen-ting blamed the delay on adjustments to plans for some of the dome's facilities.

Kao said the adjustments include the modification of skylight design and changes to comply with fire code regulations.

Chao said the firm will cover all the expenses incurred by the delay and will not ask the Taipei City government for further funds.

In order to begin construction on the long-stalled Taipei Dome, its commercial facilities were reduced by 17 per cent in 2011 in order to obtain conditional approval from the city government's Environmental Impact Assessment Review Committee.

Chao said the firm has lost funds, manpower and assets equivalent to NT$20 billion (US$655.3 million) working on the project.

“That has proved what I did was for Taipei Dome was for charity, not for making profits from the case,” Chao said.

Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin said that since Chinese Taipei's strong showing in the 2013 World Baseball Classic earlier this month, many people have been asking him about the exact date for the opening of the stadium.

The city government will offer everything it can to assist Taipei Dome to be opened on schedule in 2015, Hau said, vowing that it will be ready for the 2017 Summer Universiade .

The stadium will be partially opened at the end of 2015, and will be completely opened in 2016.

The dome is a multiuse stadium in downtown Taipei. In addition to the stadium, the complex will also offer commercial facilities, including a hotel, movie theater, shopping mall and office space.

Chao said there are more than 20 architecture firms working on the project, with a design price tag of over NT$1.4 billion.

“I promise that once Taipei Dome is completed, it will be a global paragon of architecture.”

*US$1=NT$30.5

 

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