Highway Construction
Continues

Korea Highway Corp. expands Jangseong-Damyang Highway to four lanes

The Korea Highway Corp. said it has completed its project to expand the Jangseong-Damyang Highway stretching for 25.3 km to four lanes and the segment of the 88 Highway from Damyang to Koseo, 16.3 km long, has also been expanded to four lanes, in a ceremony marking the completion of the work in Jangseong, South Jeolla Province.
The project on the Jangseong-Damyang Highway was launched in May, 2001 and has taken 5 years and 7 months to complete at a cost of 514.4 billion won, while work on the Damyang-Koseo segment of the 88 Highway began in December, 2001 and completed after 5 years and a month at a cost of 256.6 billion won.
The Damyang-Jangseong project has removed the traffic jam in the section that bypasses the Gwangju City on the Honam Highway. The expansion of the Damyang-Koseo segment has also eliminated risk factors on the 88 Highway and resolved chronic traffic jams in the areas surrounding Gwangju City ensuring drivers safety and more convenient driving on the highway.
The work also cut travel time from Damyang to Jangseong by 12 minutes to 15 minutes and saves 70 billion won in logistics costs a year.
KHC has been tightening its management policies since the government changed its policy priority on infrastructure construction from highways to railroads. The private investment in expressways is being expanded and KHC has to undertake various activities to attract private funds in the construction of highways. As a result, three highways have been built with private capital have already been in operation, five are under construction with 10 others are in the planning stages.
Non-private expressways collect toll charges half of those charged by private toll roads, but KHC has not been able to raise toll charges equal to the level charged by private toll fees, due to the government objection caused by public displeasure. Another reason for the inability to raise toll fees on public expressways has been the public perception of state-run organizations as being inefficient organizations due to a number of causes one of them being moral hazards of their executives and employees.
This is the reason for KHC CEO Son Hak-lae's call for management strategies to make KHC a reliable public company through change and innovation since he became the CEO. President Han felt that the company has to reform and innovate to overcome challenges ahead and any public organization that fails to create value for their customers cannot win the public's trust.
KHC has been running three management strategies under its slogan, "A Happy World through U-Highway's creating value for customers (making its highways safe, fast, and convenient), innovating operations systems (strengthening finance and safety) and innovating corporate culture (creating harmony and co-existence).
Behind a significant means of carrying out the innovation strategies is learning the organization to change the way that employees work through learning in their organization. Innovation experts played a key role in helping the organization as they have been educated and trained by the company. They included Six-Sigma belt holders, Town Meeting Q-win leaders, and facilitators, including the Beautiful Trio. The experts accounted for 16 percent of 706 employees, the assigned staff member as of November, 2006. Six-Sigma belts are presented to those have successfully completed a 40-hour training course.
Under the guidance of innovation experts, all staff members are encouraged to participate in the implementation of the three innovation strategies.
The learning organization activities have been good for the company as shown in the reduction of 250 billion won in the company's budgets. The installation of a temporary lane for entry and exit at the Suwon Tollgate, which has been causing chronic traffic delays, have resulted in cutting the number of vehicles waiting at the tollgate from 123 to 45, saving 28.3 billion won in traffic congestion costs. nw

President of Korea Highway Corp. makes a speech at the dedication of the expanded Jangseong-Damyang Highway Dec. 7 in Jangseong, South Jeolla Province.

A view of the dedication ceremony in Jangseong.