When completed, the freeway will cut travel time between Taipei and Ilan to 40 minutes, and enthusiasts herald it as an even greater engineering feat than the three highways that already cross the massive mountain ranges separating Taiwan's east and west coasts.
高山橫亙、一分為二的寶島東西兩岸，雖已有三條橫貫公路，但北宜高「台北到宜蘭四十分鐘」，卻是一個更偉大夢想的成真。