Executive Managing Director for Construction Sin Jae-sang of Korea Expressway Corp.

Executive Managing Director for Construction Sin Jae-sang of Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC) said in an interview with NewsWorld on the occasion of the 25th Road Day on July 7 that the KEC has been working to build new highways and expressways to relieve traffic congestion on major roadways around the country, especially around Seoul and the central region of Korea. Those highways will be built with the application of ITS technology and the autonomous cooperative highway technology so that they will be “smart highways” to provide the services to the drivers to drive their cars faster, safely and in comfort.

Currently, the KEC has been working on 31 sections of nine new highways around the country, of which 28 sections on four highways are scheduled to be completed and opened to the public this year. The KEC has also been concerned with various problems that new highways could bring in such areas as ecology, environmental damage and “road kills” for wild animals after engaging in direct consultations with local residents by dispatching survey teams of experts to mitigate environmental damage and social strife that could occur while highways are built. 

Following is an interview with Executive Managing Director for Construction Sin. 

A scene of the construction site of the Inje Tunnel connecting Inje and Yangyang on the Seoul-Yangyang Expressway.

Question: What are some of the major plans and projects drawn up at the Construction Headquarters for execution this year?

Answer: This year a total of 31 sections of the nine highways have been launched and we will complete 28 sections of four highway lines. Of those new highways, the Seoul-Sejong City Expressway is being rushed for completion as soon as possible to ease traffic jams around the Seoul area. The KEC will do everything possible to complete it as soon as possible.

The new expressway will be built by mobilizing all the technological capacity of the KEC for the construction of highways to the extent that they can be segregated from the highways already in operation.

Q: Can you please tell us about the mid-to long-term highway construction projects that have either already been launched or those that are scheduled to be launched later this year?

A: This year, KEC will first prioritize highways to be built around the Seoul area to ease traffic jams and for balanced development of the country. The Seoul-Sejong Expressway and the Seongnam-Guri Expressway, which is 21.9 km long, will be launched first, along with highways linking Pohang-Youngdok, Paju-Pocheon, Changnyoung-Miryang, and Changnyoung-Hyunpoong, among others, for a total distance of 186 km. 

On the drawing board are the Seochang-Ansan Highway, the East Gwangju-Gwangsan Highway, the Ansan-North Suwon Highway, along with the Saemankeum-Jeonju Highway, the Seoul-Sejong Highway and the Ansong-Seongnam Highway, which are in the final planning stages.

A view of the Yangyang JC on the fourth Joomunjin-Sokcho construction section.

Q: Can you please discuss the highways being built now?

A: At the present time, 13 highway sections stretching for 468.3 km are being built around the country, including 11 new sections of 403.km in length and the two sections being extended for 65.3 km.

Those highways being built are supervised by 13 construction project teams as effectively as they can. The Ulsan-Pohang Highway was opened on June 30. Set to be opened later this year are the Samcheok-Donghae Highway, the Jumunjin-Sokcho Highway, and the Sangju-Youngdok Highway, all of which are 145.1 km in length.

The highways scheduled to be completed this year will be subject to intensive and systematic quality control, as KEC tries to stay on course to boost the comforts of highway driving and happiness of the people.

Q: What is the background for the construction of the Seoul-Sejong Highway and why is it significant?

A: At the present time, traffic volume on highways in the Central Regions of the country is way over-capacity, making the lives of the people inconvenient. To make the situation worse, cities like Wirae and Dongtan have seen an influx of people since 2015, with the population of Sejong City increasing rapidly, making the highways around those cities overcrowded.

The heavy traffic on the Seoul-Busan Expressway and the Choongbu Highway have been bad enough to impair the logistics industry that relies on efficient roadways to move the cargoes, damaging the competitiveness of many industries in Korea. Situation like this led to the construction of the Seoul-Sejong Highway. The KEC had to persuade the government and the National Assembly on the need to build the new highway. As a result, we were able to work on the Ansong-Guri section of the highway first, as it includes sections near Sejong City, the new administrative capital in Korea. We at the KEC will do our best to complete the Seoul-Ansong section of the highway by 2020 according so that people can drive on the highway section safely and efficiently. 

Q: What is the progress for adopting the Intelligence Transportation System (ITS) on highway construction and management, and what’s the KEC’s plan for the system?

A: ITS is going through development to connect the highways and cars, and cars to cars, as next generation ITS to tell the drivers what lays ahead on roadways to prevent accidents.

 From 2007 and to 2014, technologies on monitoring highway conditions and communication were developed and they are being tested on the Seoul-Suwon section and the Daejon-Sejong section, with experiments to be finalized in 2017. All major “danger sections” of highways in the country will be equipped with ITS step-by-step.

A scene of the Namsamcheok IC on the 1st Samcheok-Donghae construction section.

Q: What is the status of the environmentally friendly high-tech highway construction, what are its prospects? 

A: I would like to first talk about high-tech highway construction. Highways so far have been known for their negative image in impacting the environment. The KEC set its environment management team has been working to build highways that are servicing both humans and nature. While planning a highway, the KEC contacts local residents, NGOs and local autonomous organizations in towns where a highway would pass through. An ecology survey team made up of civilians conducts an analysis on potential environmental damage and social strife that might occur when a highway is constructed, and tries to mitigate them before construction begins.

The KEC also makes sure walls and ecological roads for wild animals are erected along highways to protect the habitat of animals and prevent animals from being hit by cars. When planning new highways for construction, the company has addressed the protection of plants and animals to ensure their safety and survival.