Editing Highway system in Taiwan (section)

=== History ===
The first [[controlled-access highway]], and a predecessor to the national highways in Taiwan, was the [[MacArthur Thruway]], built in 1964 between [[Keelung]] and [[Taipei]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.newdaai.tv/?view=detail&id=81972 | title=Da Ai Headlines for May 2, 2011 | date=2011-05-02 | work=Da Ai World News | access-date=2012-01-10}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|text=It may be difficult to find an archival link that shows what that page looked like in 2011 or 2012, since it is a frequently-updated website. A better source may be needed.}}</ref> Construction on the first modern national highway, [[National Highway 1 (Taiwan)|National Highway 1]], began in 1971. The northern section between [[Keelung]] and [[Zhongli District|Zhongli]] was completed in 1974, and the entire freeway was completed in 1978. It runs from the northern harbor city of [[Keelung]] to the southern harbor city of [[Kaohsiung]], while there was an {{convert|8.6|km|mi|adj=on}} branch (No. 1A) connecting to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now [[Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport]]).

Construction began on the other freeways in the late 1980s. The northern section of the second north–south freeway ([[National Highway 3 (Taiwan)|National Highway 3]]) between [[Xizhi]] and [[Hsinchu]] was completed in 1997. The No. 1A Branch was extended to link No. 3 Freeway at [[Yingge, Taipei]], and renamed as the [[National Highway 2 (Taiwan)|National Highway 2]]. Three other short freeways (No. 4, No. 8, and No. 10) were built to link the two north–south freeways in [[Taichung County]] (now part of [[Taichung City]]), [[Tainan County]] (now part of [[Tainan City]]), and [[Kaohsiung County]] (now part of [[Kaohsiung City]]), respectively. The entire No. 3 Freeway was completed in January 2004.

To ease the congestion of No. 1 Freeway in the [[Taipei metropolitan area]], a {{convert|20|km|mi|adj=on}} [[viaduct]] was built in 1997 along the original freeway between [[Xizhi]] and the [[Wugu District]] of New Taipei to serve as a bypass for traffic not exiting and entering the freeway within Taipei.

The construction of a freeway connecting the [[Taipei metropolitan area]] and [[Yilan County, Taiwan|Yilan County]] began in 1991 and was completed in June 2006. It includes a {{convert|12.9|km|mi|adj=on}} tunnel ([[Hsuehshan Tunnel]]), which is the ninth-longest road [[tunnel]] in the world. An extension from [[Yilan County, Taiwan|Yilan County]] to [[Hualien County]] is planned. However, its construction is being delayed by environmental concerns.

On January 2, 2014, the toll system was converted to a distance-based one. Tolls are no longer collected at toll booths but automatically by [[Electronic Toll Collection (Taiwan)|electronic toll collection]] (ETC).