Chungju-Sangju Section of Jungbu Inland Highway to Open in Dec.
- New highway to set off balanced regional development


A new road to pave the way for sightseeing the famous Mungyeong Saejae Hill and take a dip at Suanbo hot springs is soon to be opened within this year.
A highway segment stretching for 81.4 km linking Chungju, North Chungcheong Province and Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, is scheduled to be opened after 8 years and 2 months of hard work, said Yoo Shi-young, manager of the Jungbu Construction Office of the Korea Highway Corp. The new segment of the highway is expected to cut the travel time between the two cities to 47 minutes from 1 hour and 10 minutes and furthermore open the central regions of the country to tourist traffics.
The new highway will make the central Chungcheong region to catch up with other regions such as the North Gyeongsang and Gangwon regions in transportation infrastructure, which has been lagging behind those other regions. The new highway would help the region specially in terms of logistics and tourism, claimed Manager Yoo.
Cargo traffic,which has been concentrated heavily on the Seoul-Busan Highway, can be diverted to the Jungbu Inland Highway, which will help the regional economy develop faster with export and import goods traffic passing through the region rising rapidly.
The new highway is being talked about as an alternative road to the Seoul-Busan Highway linking the capital, Chungcheong and Yeongnam regions with special benefit to tourism in the central region of the country.
The highway is the fourth roof piercing through the central region of the land south to north linked with the Yeongdong Line and Gyeongbuk Line in the central inland region.
The new highway passes through three provinces including Gyeonggi, North Chungcheong and North Gyeonsang Provinces and eight cities and counties. The four-lane highway will cost a total of 1,716.2 billion won when it opens next month. Work on the highway started in October, 1997.
The new expressway will be a boon to tourism in the region with the travel time from Chungju to Sangju cut to 47 minutes off 23 minutes from the current travel time.
According to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation and the Korea Highway Corp., three new highways will be opened next month.
The new highways will make the nation's highways to 2,803 km long, bringing total number of highways to 26 from 23 stretching for 2,673 km, easing traffic congestions on those highways.
The new highways to be opened next month include Daegu-Pohang Line, the Gangnung-Donghae Line and the Chungju-Sangju Line. These highways are expected to save 420.3 billion won logistics costs across the country when they are opened. The highways will cut the travel time from 34 to 48 minutes from 53 to 100 minutes currently required.
When the Chungju-Sangju segment of the Jungbu Inland Highway is opened, it is expected to ease the traffic load on the Seoul-Busan Highway and the Yeongdong Line. The segment has six entrances including Goesan, Yeonpung, and Sangju, with two rest areas in Goesan and Mungyeong.
The linkage of Jungbu Inland Highway, the Jungang Line and the Seoul-Busan Highway is expected to contribute to balanced regional development of the country with the opening of the Daegu-Pohang Line, which will help the growth of the Pohang Industrial Park.
The linkage of Pohang City, the mecca for the nation's steel industry, with Daegu, and Yeongcheon will be conducive to making the Pohang region internationally competitive as an advance base for the Pacific rim economic sphere.
The Chungju-Sangju segment will save 84.5 billion won a year in logistics costs a year, the Daegu-Pohang Line 260.3 billion won a year and the Gangnung-Donghae Line 75.5 billion won a year.
The three new highway lines will take the load off from the existing lines in terms of both cargo and passenger traffics.
In order to build the highway segment, a total of 2.04 million in manpower has been mobilized along with 400,000 heavy equipment, 950,000 tons of cement and 190,000 tons of steel rods.
Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. undertook work on the No.6 segment of the Chungju-Sangju Line, stretching for 10.6 km. It was the top builder in terms of work quality, safety and environment management. The company changed the construction method of bridges from Climb Form to Slip Form, enabling to work to go on for 24 hours a day, cutting the work time. The company has been cited for its excellent work in solving problems associated with building tunnels and bridges.
The company also has been noted for its construction of waste water treatment facilities for residents in the nearby towns to making contribution to solving a civil petition issue. nw