TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Tuesday announced the demolition of Gongguan Roundabout at the intersection of Keelung Road and Roosevelt Road.

The roundabout is at a major transportation intersection connecting Taipei with Xindian and Yonghe. It has been the top accident hotspot in the city for seven consecutive years. 

Chiang posted on Facebook that the roundabout design makes it prone to accidents involving cars and scooters. It is also a high-risk intersection for pedestrians, per CTWant.

Chiang said the roundabout will be transformed into an orthogonal intersection. The original plan hoped to retain a bus-only underpass, but ventilation shafts and pumping facilities could not be removed. The underpass will be filled in, and the roundabout will be converted to a flat surface.

Chiang said converting the roundabout into a safer traffic intersection will be more difficult than the demolition of the Xinsheng-Heping Overpass. Roosevelt Road and Keelung Road are major thoroughfares with heavy traffic during peak commuting hours.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) said that the city government had considered improvements in the past, but construction would seriously affect traffic. Chiang has asked the Transportation Bureau and the Public Works Bureau to develop detailed construction plans that minimize the impact on traffic during construction.