Jungbu Inland Expressway Linking Yeoju, Kimcheon Dedicated Dec. 15
- The new highway to take loads off Seoul-Busan Expressway by 20 percent


The Jungbu Inland Expressway was formally dedicated on Dec.15 with one of its segments linking Chungju and Sangju stretching for 81.4 km completing its construction.
The Ministry of Construction and Transportation and the Korea Highway Corp. said with the completion of the construction of the highway portion, the Yeoju interchange of the Yeongdong Highway and the Kimcheon interchange of the Seoul-Busan Highway has been linked stretching for 151.6 km.
The Chungju-Sangju section started its construction in October,1997, taking 7 years for completion including 5 interchanges and 4 rest areas.
It took 2,700 billion won to build the Jungbu Inland Expressway including the Sangju-Kimcheon section(28.6 km) completed in September, 2001, and the Yeoju and Chungju section(41.6 km) completed in December,2002.
The MOCT said the opening would cut the travel time from Seoul to Busan by 29 km and toll fees by 8 percent on the average. Accordingly, toll charges for passenger cars from Seoul to Busan has been lowered to 16,900 won per car from 18,300 won and for lorries weighing 20 tons or more now have to pay 27,900 won per vehicle from 30,300 won, a reduction of 2,400 won.
Particularly, the Jungbu Inland Expressway has the maximum speed limit of 110 km per hour, just right for weekend traffics to avoid traffic jams on other highways and is expected to take away 20 percent of the usual traffic load from the Seoul-Busan Highway, cutting logistics expenses.The highway also passes through some of the most scenic places in the country including the Chungju Lake, Suanbo Hot Spring, Wolak National Park, and Mungyeong Saejae Hill.
The highway portion between Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, and Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, took 7 years and 2 months to complete with workers putting in hard work and long hours, said Yoo Chi-young, manager of the Jungbu Construction Office of the Korea Highway Corp.
The new section of the highway will 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 traffic.
The new highway made the central region to catch up with other regions such as North Gyeongsang and Gangwon regions in transportation infrastructure, which has been lagging behind those other regions. The new highway would help the region especially 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 passing through the region increasing 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 benefits to tourism in the central region of the country.
The highway is the fourth loop cutting 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 portion passes through three provinces including Gyeonggi, North Chungcheong, and North Gyeongsang Provinces and eight cities and counties. The four-lane highway cost 1,716.2 billion won. The new expressway will be a boon to tourism in the central region with travel time between Chungju and Sangju cut to 47 minutes, off 23 minutes from the old time. nw