๐น๐ผ Taiwan Team โ National Land Management Agency & Kawada
Individuals not publicly documented โ confirm in person
The three Taiwan collaborators are government/company engineers without a public research/profile footprint (extensive web search found no reliable individual records). Below are editable stubs plus solid organization profiles. Fill in their exact roles when you meet them.
The three collaborators (stubs)
| Name | Affiliation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Engr. Chi-Hung Chao | National Land Management Agency | โ role/specialty TBC |
| Engr. Chung-Ying Hsieh | National Land Management Agency | โ role/specialty TBC |
| Dr. Chien Wen Huang | Kawada Construction Co., Ltd | โ likely bridge/structural engineering (PhD) |
Ask when you meet them
- Which division? Roads, bridges, buildings, or planning?
- Do they handle maintenance directly, or policy/oversight?
- For Dr. Huang: bridge inspection/retrofit work at Kawada?
Organizations
National Land Management Agency (ๅๅ็ฎก็็ฝฒ, NLMA)
- Agency under Taiwanโs Ministry of the Interior (MOI).
- Reorganized 20 Sept 2023 โ upgraded/renamed from the former Construction and Planning Agency (CPA).
- Remit: building codes, urban & national land planning, public housing, local public infrastructure, land use/management.
Important nuance for the comparison
NLMAโs core is land/building/urban planning, not highway operations. In Taiwan, road maintenance proper sits mainly with the Highway Bureau (formerly Directorate General of Highways, DGH) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (~5,300 km provincial highways/expressways, 20,000+ km total). Worth clarifying which hat the NLMA engineers wear here. (Highway Bureau)
Kawada Construction / Kawada Industries
- Major Japanese steel-bridge fabricator (founded 1922); one of Japanโs top-5 by capacity.
- Landmark works: Akashi-Kaikyล Bridge, Tokyo Gate Bridge, Rainbow Bridge.
- Maintenance side: seismic strengthening, fatigue-crack inspection/retrofit, durability R&D, and construction robotics.
- A Taiwan-based engineer (Dr. Huang) on the Taiwan team suggests a bridge-construction/maintenance angle โ strong overlap with the 7/22 bridge demo and NDT. (Kawada)
Country context โ road maintenance in Taiwan
- Mature, well-funded road system vs. most participant countries.
- Key agency for highways: Highway Bureau / DGH (MOTC); dense expressway network with established maintenance.
- Likely strengths to learn from: systematic inspection, seismic design (Taiwan is highly seismic, like Japan).
Sources
- NLMA: Wikipedia, official site
- Highway Bureau (DGH): thb.gov.tw
- Kawada: global.kawada.jp