Expressways to Be
Accessed from Any
Place within 30 Min.
Seeks private investments to implement projects

Korea Highway Corp. (KHC) plans to develop a 6,160 km-long express network in a grid pattern with seven artery expressways running from North to South and nine artery ones running from East to West.
Expressways will be constructed from the current 2,804 km to 3,400 km by 2006 so that motorists can get to expressways within 30 minutes from any place and to anywhere in the country within a half-day, said Bok Kee-chan, executive managing director for construction at KHC.
Two expressways, including the planned second sea-land bridge linking Incheon International Airport and Songdo, will break ground with investments from the private sector next month, Bok said in an interview with NewsWorld. Two expressways, built with investments from the private sector, are operational and three others are under construction, he said. The following are the excerpts from the interview.
Question: Would you elaborate on expressways whose construction is under way or planned with investments from the private sector?
Answer: The project to construct the second sea-land bridge linking Incheon International Airport and Songdo, a new city of the Incheon Free Economic Zone, with investments from the private sector will break ground next month along with the Seosuwon-Osan-Pyeongtaek expressway project.
The second sea-land suspension bridge will be constructed by KODA, a joint venture by AMEC of UK and Incheon Municipal Government at a cost of 1,024.9 billion won, with dedication scheduled for October 2009. The project will be a representative foreign investment project with AMEC taking a 51 percent interest in the joint venture.
The planned second sea-land bridge could reduce the traveling time from downtown Incheon to Incheon International Airport to 15 minutes from the current one-hour via the existing Incheon International Airport Highway. It will benefit motorists from such districts as Seongnam, Yongin and Suwon heading for Incheon International Airports via the Seoul Ring Road.
The 38.5-km-long expressway linking Seosuwon and Pyeongtaek via Osan will be constructed by 2009 at a cost of 856.9 billion won by a special purpose company, composed of Doosan Heavy Industries and four other companies.
Private capital is drawn to implement the rising demands for social overhead capital facilities as planned despite the government's budgetary constraints. Project financing is not only preventing the government's financial woe, but also dispersing excess costs the government has to shoulder and inevitable risks between the special purpose company and financial institution. A special purpose company, comprising corporations from the private sector,
Two expressways, built with investments from the private sector, are operational - Incheon International Airport Highway, Cheonan-Nonsan Expressway. Three others are under construction. They are the Daegu-Busan Expressway, the 36.3 km-long Ilsan-Taegyero section of Seoul Ring Road and Seoul-Chuncheon Expressway.
Q: Would you tell our readers about KHC? plan to construct new expressways?
A: Korea Highway Corp.

(KHC) plans to expand expressways, now having 23 routes, from current 2,804 km to 3,400 km by 2006 so that motorists can get to expressways within 30 minutes from any place and to anywhere in the country within a half-day. By 2020, the corporation plans to build a 6,160 km-long express network in a grid pattern with seven artery expressways running from North to South and nine artery ones running from east to west.
Forty-three new expressway routes, totaling 1,929.8 km in length, are under construction. Projects for expanding expressways totaling 610.7 km in length are under way, including those for privately invested 225.7 km.
Currently, 24 expressway routes, totaling 2,922 km in length, are under management, including a 18 km-long privately invested one. Under the plan, KHC plans to purchase this year the sites for three new expressway projects - one on a new 45.4-km-long expressway linking Eumseong and Chungju and the 24.1 km-long Yeongdong-Okcheon section and the 55.7 km-long Naejeong-Busan section of the two existing expressways.
Q: Would you provide the details of expressway projects scheduled for dedication or for breaking ground this year?
A: KHC will break ground on projects for a total of 38 sections of six express routes, totaling 297.5 km in length, including 19 sections in three newly built expressways. The six projects will cost 5.7 trillion won.
The project for the 80 km-long Jeonju-Gwangyang section broke ground in March and the projects for the 14.4 km-long Jumunjin-Socho section, the Jangjeung-Gwangyang and 60.8 km-long section will follow suit in December.
The expansion project for the 3.9-km-long Seongseo-Okpo existing section will start in June and the 24.7 km-long Nonsan-Jeonju section and the Donggwngju-Goseo section will be launched in December.
Four expressway routes, stretching 96.6 km in length, will be opened to traffic this year. The newly built 48.8-km-long Jinju-Tongyeong expressway will be dedicated on December 15 at a cost pf 1,080 billion won. The three expansion projects - 40.5 km-long Eonyang-Busan section, 5.4 km-long Jungak-Okcheon section and 1.9-km-long Hannam-Banpo section - will be dedicated in December this year. In particular, the dedication of the project aimed at expanding car lanes from current four to six is expected to relieve the bottleneck at the starting point of the Gyeongbu (Seoul-Busan) Expressway near the Hannam Grand Bridge.
Q: What? the progress of a project to construct the Seoul-Yangyang Expressway?
A: The planned 152.6 km-long expressway linking Seoul and Yangyang will be built with four to six lanes at a cost of 5,796.1 billion won. The 61.4 km-long Seoul-Chuncheon section and the 17.1 km-long Chuncheon-Donghongcheon section are under construction, and the design of the remaining Donghongcheon-Yangyang section is under way.
The private sector will invest 1,429.5 billion won for the Seoul-Chuncheon section and the remainder of the construction cost; the state coffer will subsidize 428.4 billion. Investors from the private sector will be allowed to operate the sector with toll charges for 30 years under a BTO (Build Transfer Operate) contract. Construction will be implemented from last August through August 2009. Hyundai Development Co. takes a 29.0 percent interest in the consortium of constructing the section; Hyundai E&C, 24.4 percent; Lotte E&C, 17.08 percent; Korea Highway Corp.; 10.0 percent, Korea Development Corp., 9.76 percent; and Hanil E&C, 9.76 percent.
Kaengnam Enterprise, Hanshin E&C, Korea Development and Shindong-ah E&C participate in construction of the Chuncheon-Donghongcheon section, to be built at a cost of 494.2 billion won. nw

Bok Kee-chan, executive managing director for construction at KHC

The Seochang Intersection of the West Sea Coast Expressway.