To reduce the increasingly heavy traffic load on the northern section of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway, the Executive Yuan approved construction of a Second Northern Freeway in 1984. Construction started in 1987 and the freeway was scheduled to be completed and opened in late August of 1997. The Directorate General of Posts plans to print a pair of Commemorative Stamps on the Opening of the Second Northern Freeway of Taiwan, one showing the freeway crossing over the Bitan Bridge of the Shindian River and the other a view of the interchange in Hsinchu. The scheduled date of release is August 26, 1997. The face values of the stamps are NT$5.00 and NT$19.00.    The total length of the Second Northern Freeway is about 1 17 kilometers, and includes the following sections (1) the main freeway, which runs along the edge of the east side mountains of northern Taiwan and the South edge of metropolitan Taipei. It branches out from the Sun yat-sen Freeway near Shijr, and connects to the Interchange of the Hsinchu system at the southern edge of the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, which connects to the Sun Yat-sen Freeway, (2) the inner circle, which branches out from the main freeway in the area near Yingge, goes through Taoyuan and connects to the airport interchange of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway, serving as the second express road providing access to the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport; and (3) the Taipei spur, which branches out from the main line in the area near Mucha and connects to existing and planned expressway systems of Taipei City.