Project Overview
As Taiwan’s gateway city, Taoyuan International Airport occupies a strategic location for international logistics and serves as a key hub connecting cities across the Asia-Pacific region. The airport benefits from extensive maritime logistics capabilities due to its proximity to Taipei Port, along with comprehensive transportation networks including highways, high-speed rail, and airport MRT systems. In response to the need for a third runway, the “Taoyuan Aerotropolis Project” aims to reorganize land use around the airport to enhance Taoyuan International Airport’s competitiveness, promote Taoyuan’s overall development, and drive Taiwan’s industrial transformation and internationalization.
The project covers the Dayuan and Luzhu Districts of Taoyuan City, with a total urban planning area of 4,564 hectares. This represents Taiwan’s largest land expropriation project to date, comprising the “egg yolk zone” managed by the Ministry of Transportation (including runways and free trade zones) and the “egg white zone” overseen by the Taoyuan City Government (including specialized industrial areas and airport MRT station corridors).
The Taoyuan Aerotropolis Engineering Office of the Civil Aviation Administration, MOTC is responsible for land expropriation and development across 1,756 hectares, including Taoyuan City Government’s Phase One development (1,190 hectares) and areas around the Navy base (566 hectares) delegated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The project encompasses the construction of planned roads, common utility tunnels, bridges, and new parks. The future “Taoyuan Aerotropolis” will leverage the airport’s prime location, integrating with the MRT system and new planned roads to attract airport-related and supporting industries, meet commercial and residential development needs, and establish comprehensive community amenities, creating a new urban model centered around Taoyuan International Airport.
Implementation Benefits
(1) Resilient Disaster Prevention
- Water Retention Ponds
The Aerotropolis features recreational corridors along its central parkways, incorporating bike paths and pedestrian-friendly spaces integrated with park landscapes. Water retention ponds and waterfront plazas are strategically placed while preserving the traditional pond culture. Of the 12 existing ponds, 5 have been converted into retention ponds, covering approximately 37 hectares with a total water retention capacity of 1.47 million tons, significantly enhancing the city’s disaster resilience. - Drainage Engineering
The four rivers within the Aerotropolis area feature drainage systems designed to uniform standards. The urban road drainage system meets 10-year flood prevention standards, while river protection meets 100-year flood prevention standards. Parkways and bike paths use permeable paving to increase urban road permeability and help regulate temperature.
(2) Circular Economy
The Aerotropolis road network spans approximately 197 kilometers. All new planned road surfaces will utilize recycled materials, including an estimated 145,000 tons of oxidized slag, 245,000 tons of reclaimed asphalt pavement, and 314,000 tons of recycled incineration aggregate, totaling 704,000 tons - making it the nation’s first and largest implementation of such materials. Oxidized slag will be used in road surface layers, while reclaimed asphalt pavement will replace up to 60% of natural aggregates in road base layers. Recycled incineration aggregate will be used for soil stabilization and Controlled Low-Strength Material (CLSM). This approach simultaneously addresses both engineering needs and industrial waste management challenges, achieving industrial transformation and circular economy goals while establishing a new paradigm for sustainable land development engineering.
(3) Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction
In terms of energy conservation and carbon reduction, the project not only incorporates smart city backup conduits within common utility tunnels but also plans to install 13,600 smart streetlights throughout the area. This initiative is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 11,000 tons annually and save approximately NT$35 million in electricity costs per year, integrating sustainable carbon reduction concepts into daily life.
(4) Smart City Development
The project integrates BIM (Building Information Modeling), GIS (Geographic Information System), and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies for underground utility management, facilitating water level monitoring, remote control systems, smart road inspection systems, and intelligent bus shelters. By integrating common utility tunnel spaces, equipment, and resources, this lays the foundation for developing smart, automated city management systems, enabling more precise urban management.
- Installation of Smart Control Modules on 13,600 Streetlights in the Aerotropolis
Remote connectivity allows proactive monitoring of streetlight conditions, improving management efficiency with limited manpower. Streetlight operations including power control, brightness adjustment, and automated maintenance requests can all be managed through network connections. - 3D Mapping of Underground Utilities
The Aerotropolis underground utility design has fully adopted 3D-BIM mapping and actual position surveying, integrating power lines, telecommunications trunk lines, water pipes, gas pipes, drainage culverts, sewage pipes, street lighting, and common utility tunnels. Compared to traditional 2D methods, 3D-BIM modeling clearly displays utility distribution patterns, enabling real-time inspection of relative positions between different utilities during the design phase and effective conflict management. During construction, three-dimensional GML coordinates of utility endpoints and turning points are surveyed and documented. After completion, this data is imported into the Office of Road and Accessory Maintenance’s road excavation and common utility tunnel management system. This enhances future maintenance management quality and efficiency, as precise underground utility data serves as a cornerstone for smart city development.