Taiwanese engineers showed relief as much as pleasure at completing the pilot drive on what they say is South East Asia’s longest highway tunnel. After battling nearly eight years longer than planned, the pilot tunnel boring machine holed through last month on the 12.9-kilometer-long Pinglin tunnel on the emerging expressway between Taipei and Ilan, on the island’s northeast coast.

"It’s a thrill," says Wei-Chaung Lee, deputy project manager with tunnel contractor RSEA Engineering Corp., Taipei. He admits also to being "fed up" at the years of "struggle" against treacherous rock that has plagued the project with torrential leaks. With the nearly 5-meter-dia pilot now in, he hopes no more shocks lie ahead. The two main tunnels should hole-through by next fall, some six years late, he says.