The Inauguration of Taiwan’s Second Southern Freeway

The Second Southern Freeway, from Hsinhua, Tainan to Chiuju, Pingtung, is to be completed and opened in February 2000. This is the final link in southern Taiwan's freeway network, which will bring prosperity to this area and balance development in the region.


The Second Southern Freeway runs for a total of about 134 kilometers, through Tainan County, Tainan City, Kaohsiung County, Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County, and includes the main freeway, the Kaohsiung branch and the Tainan branch.

The Kaoping River cable-stayed bridge is situated at the border of Kaohsiung and Pingtung Country. The total length of the bridge is 2,617 meters. The western section of it has a nonsymmetrical cable-stayed bridge design. The pylon, its main structure, is a single tower with an A-frame design, with a height of 183.5 meters. It has a side span of 180 meters that uses a prestressed concrete box beam. Its main spain is an extremely long 330 meters, and uses a completely welded steel-frame box beam. The middle section of the bridge, for which a balanced-cantilever design has been employed, has long spans. The eastern section of the bridge, which employs an advancing-shoring design, has spans of medium length. This magnificent and powerful design of the bridge as a whole is a triumph both of structural mechanics and esthetics.

The NT$5.00 stamp features a close-up of the pylon of the bridge to show that it is an important landmark of the freeway.

The NT$12.00 stamp features a bird's-eye view of the interchange of the Tainan freeway.

The NT$25.00 miniature sheet features a bird's-eye view of the bridge.

Stamp Issue: 2000-02-02