The nation’s longest undersea tunnel, which will connect Boryeong Port and Wonsan Islet in Boryeong, 

Chungcheongnam-do, is under construction.(Photos: kolonglobal)

The construction of the nation’s longest undersea tunnel, stretching 6.9 km, that will link Boryeong Port and Wonsan Islet in Boryeong, Chungcheong-nam-do, has picked up the pace to be ready for its dedication scheduled in 2018.

Excavation, which began at Wonsan Islet, has now inched 420 meters toward Boryeong Port. When excavation is launched at the opposite side from the port this September, the progress of the undersea tunnel will be much faster.

The undersea tunnel will be built 75 meters below the water surface by employing the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), considered easier to construct and safer than the submerged tunnel method.

The undersea tunnel section and a 1.7 km-long cable-stayed bridge linking Wonsan Islet and Anmyeon Islet in Taean will be built under a project to construct the 14.1 km-long unconnected portion of National Road No. 77. 

The dedication of the unconnected section of the national road means that it will cap the nation’s linking of the unconnected coastal areas from Incheon to Busan. It now takes one-and-a-half hours for motorists to detour from Daecheon Port and Anmyeon Islet, but travel time will be shortened to just 10 minutes.  

The undersea tunnel project is most likely to bring about a sea change in the tourism landscape of the 

West Coast as Taean, Boryeong, and Seocheon will emerge as the axes of the regional tourism belt.

The project is most likely to undergo a sea change in the tourism landscape of the West Coast as Taean, Boryeong, and Seocheon will emerge as the axes of the regional tourism belt, pundits and analysts say. Taean will see tourists surge from 6 million in 1982 to about 30 million in 2000. The economic effects of the project are estimated at 1 trillion won, they said. 

The planned completion of National Road No. 77 will likely serve as a catalyst of a long-delayed project to build Boryeong New Port. In 1977, the government enacted a law regarding the construction of Boryeong New Port as a hub port of the central region of the nation, but the plan has been put on hold because of the underdevelopment of the hinterlands of Boryeong Port. 

When the new port is constructed on top of the construction of the national road, Boryeong, with about 90 uninhabited and inhabited islets, will likely serve as the home of international vacation and marine leisure businesses and a center of the so-called Pan-West Sea Sphere.