In Charge of
Infrastructure Building

MOCT's infrastructure facility team targets construction of 6,160 km of highways, byways by 2020

The Infrastructure Facility Team of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation is in charge of the construction of major infrastructure in the country, most importantly the highway network including byways to connect major cities and regions in the country.
By 2020, the team targets to build 6,160 km of highways and byways to make the entire cities and regions in the country come within half-day life regions and for the sake of balanced development of land across the country.
This year, the team is scheduled to launch the construction of 17 new highways with a total length of 1,093 km and expand 16 highways with a total length of 611 km at the cost of some 1.725 billion won with 995 billion won to come from the national treasury. A highway linking Eumsong and Chungju will be newly built with four highways including that between Yangjae and Giheung to be expanded. A new highway will also be built linking Jangsong and Damyang, with 5 highways to be opened including one between Yongdong and Gumi with a total length stretching for 103 km.
The Korea Highway Corp. will issue asset-backed securities worth 1.3 trillion won to cover the highway construction costs. The company will issue 3 trillion won worth of the ABS next year to finance the construction of highways in line with the government plan to make more than 42 percent of the highways to have four lanes to reduce logistics costs and strengthen the function to support the industry. The government will invest a total of 3.389,4 billion won.
The National Road No.4 between Yongdong and Chupungyong and 20 others stretching for 225 km and six segments of the Hoecheon and Sangpae highway some 41 km long will be built. The National Road linking Ildong and Yongjung and its segments totaling 58 stretching for 577 km will be completed.
Continued investment in highway construction has expanded the number of major highways in the country 4.6 times since the 1970s, but it still is insufficient to catch up with those of advanced countries. Most of the transportation facilities have reached their limits, causing excessive logistics expenses and wastes in transportation expenses The logistics cost in 2005 totaled 90 trillion won or 12.5 percent of GDP, while transportation cost wastes amounted to 22.7 trillion won or 3.1 percent of GDP.
The government? investment in social overhead capital decreased proportionately due to increased in national defense budget and welfare expenses. For continued expansion in SOC, private sector investment is needed. The portion of private investment in SOC increased to 10.4 percent of total investment in SOC from 4.1 percent in 2003.
The expansion in inter-Korean exchange has increased the importance of transportation facilities linking the two Koreas including railroads and highways.
The average rainfall in Korea is 1.4 times higher than world average, but rainfall per person is only 13 percent of world average, requiring continued effort to build reservoirs and other means to preserve water.
The team will also diffuse the arguments arising from highways, national roads and byways running parallel to each other without much traffic loads and causing double investment. The team will try to realign the national roads to make the highway network more workable. The team will also try to raise the effectiveness of the highways by rearranging sections that run into each other. The MOCT will authorize the Highway Policy Deliberation Committee to take up the issues with the participation of private sector people related with the construction industry.
The cost of traffic jams amounted to some 23 trillion won in monetary term in 2004, with 60 percent of them occurring in central parts of the cities. The team launched the project to relieve traffic jams in large cities by building circular roads around the cities, roads to connect highways and byways.
The team has launched the review of the project to build a circular highway around Busan stretching for 59.9 km.
?nvironment-friendly Road Construction Guideline,?which was legislated in December, 2004, is being tested on highways and national roads and will cover the entire highways from this year. The guideline will leave alone national parks with the values for preservation and build tunnels and bridges to go around them if necessary. The MOCT has also introduced the Ecological Passages Streamlining Plan and has been managing it since its establishment in September, 2004.
Under the 2006 plan, the team will build four new environmental passages on national roads and repair 45 bridges across the country. By 2010, 36 environmental passages will be built and 214 passages repaired.
The MOCT has also decided to let local residents, NGOs and other interest groups to participate in infrastructure planning to foreclose any conflicts arising from the projects such as the Chuncheon-Yangyang Highway. The ministry is in the process of drawing up a model project with the public involvement from the planning and designing stages. It has formed the Council for Prevention of Conflicts and launched its operation in the process of designing the Chuncheon-Yangyang Highway, with the participation of NGO and representatives of local residents in the council since December, 2005.
The MOCT will also consider the introduction of a pre-environment checking system for the inspection of the areas where the circular road around Busan is to be built.
This year, the government has set aside 1.687 trillion won in funds to be used to prevent overflow of streams around the country during the rainy season. Streams to be taken care of this year will be 684 km long with major streams to be upgraded to national streams so that the government will give priority to those streams in its work to prevent their overflow.
In Japan, 61 percent of streams in Japan are designated as national streams compared with only 10 percent. In this regard, the government has been pushing plans to build dams to prevent flooding to keep the dams from overflowing in the rainy season.
By 2010, 24 dams across the country will be checked to see if they needed work aimed at expanding their water holding capacities. Work will be done on 10 dams including the Soyang Dam and two dams will be redesigned to expand their water holding capacities. The Soyang Dam will be strengthened to withstand 810 mm of rain from the current 632 mm. Dams to be built to prevent flooding include Hwabuk Dam in Kunwee, North Gyeongsang Province, Buhang Dam in Kimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, Songdok Dam in Chongsong, North Gyeongsang Province and Kunnam Dam in Yoncheon, Gyeonggi Province.
In order to reopen the railroad link between the two Koreas, the ministry rebuilt railroads and highways in the south side of the Demilitarized Zone by the end of December last year. The North also completed the project to rebuild the railroad and highway extensions to their side of the DMZ and currently it is building the railroad station. A test-run of the inter-Korean railroads,the Seoul-Sinuiju Line and Donghae Line on the east coast was to be held on May 25, but the North suddenly cancelled the event, which was to be celebrated with a great fanfare in the South. The North said it will be held as soon as military matters surrounding the test-run would be solved between the military authorities of the two Koreas.
The ministry plans to set up a joint operation committee with the North to manage the inter-Korea transportation facilities, before the planned test-run on Aug. 15, if all goes well.
The ministry also plans to rebuild the severed sections of other railroads and roads that link the North including the Seoul-Wonsan Line, and the Mt.Geumgang Line. nw

Yoo In-sang, head of the Infrastructure Facility Team of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation.