Taiwan's army will blow up a quake-damaged Hualien bridge in its third live demolition drill this year

Taiwan's army plans to blow up part of a disused bridge in eastern Hualien County on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in its third live bridge demolition exercise this year, according to the Liberty Times. Engineers from the army's Hualien-Taitung Defense Command are due to destroy three of the seven old piers of the Mingli Bridge in Fuli Township, a drill the military says is meant to validate its ability to block an enemy advance in wartime.

The demolition follows two earlier bridge blasts in 2026. In March the army carried out its first such training at the Shanjin Bridge in Yunlin County, where part of the result fell short of expectations, the newspaper reported. On Sept. 22 the Sixth Army Corps' 53rd Engineer Group demolished the Xizhou No. 3 Bridge in Yuanshan Township, Yilan County, as part of a county rebuilding project, and that blast achieved the intended effect.

The military has since drawn lessons from those attempts and continued to refine how it assesses bridge structures, places explosive charges and runs blasting procedures, with the aim of proving that its engineers can carry out battlefield obstacle missions, according to the Liberty Times.

Lt. Gen. Chiu Chih-feng, commander of the Hualien-Taitung Defense Command, recently visited the site to inspect preparations, according to the military's Youth Daily News. He heard briefings on the operation plan, set out priorities for the units involved and urged troops to sharpen their engineering skills by working with real forces, real materials and real terrain, so that the effectiveness of obstacle operations could be tested.

Chiu said the bridge had been judged unsafe for traffic after natural disasters, and that his command was supporting the county government's reconstruction plan by combining local building needs with realistic unit training. He told officers at every level to divide tasks clearly, manage risks and make sure all protective measures were in place, so that the drill would be both safe and effective, the military newspaper reported.

The Mingli Bridge links Fuli and Zhuoxi townships. It was damaged in the Chishang earthquake of September 2022, and Typhoon Haikui the following year caused its deck to sink, forcing the bridge to close. The Hualien County Government is spending about NT$350 million to rebuild it, which requires the old structure to be removed first, and it arranged the demolition with the military, the Liberty Times said.

Fuli Township chief Chiang Tung-cheng told the Central News Agency last week that the military would blow up three of the seven piers due for removal, while a contractor would take down the other four by hand. He said the rebuild had been delayed slightly because the approach roads at both ends connect to flood-control roads, which left the project short of funds until extra money was added and the design changed. Materials have reached the site and construction work has started, according to that report.

On the day of the blast, traffic and the surrounding area will be closed between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. local time, and the riverbed within 300 metres of the bridge has been declared a restricted zone, the Liberty Times reported.

Destroying bridges to slow an invading force is a core task for army engineers in Taiwan's defence plans, and the series of live blasts this year gives units rare practice with real structures rather than simulations. By pairing the drills with local reconstruction projects, the army can train on bridges that would have to be torn down anyway.