ROTREX 2007 to Kick
Off at KINTEX on May 9

Likely to reposition itself as Asia's biggest exhibition in the road & transportation sector

The 2nd International Road & Traffic Expo 2007 (ROTREX 2007) will be held at KINTEX in Ilsan, north of Seoul, from May 9 through May 12. The following are the excerpts of an interview Bok Kee-chan, executive managing director for the Engineering Headquarters at Korea Expressway Corp (), had with NewsWorld.
Question: High hope is placed on the 2nd International Road & Traffic Expo 2007 (ROTREX 2007). How does KHC prepare for it?
Answer: The domestic road & transportation sector becomes not only a driving force behind the development of the national economy, but also a huge market where government budgetary investments account for 18.4 trillion won. However, it lacks brisk technology exchanges and overseas exploration by road & transportation companies and exhibitions designed to promote corporate publicity and marketing activities.
In contrast, advanced countries have a long-standing history of exhibitions like Traffex, established in 1969 in UK, Intertraffic, created in 1972 in the Netherlands and Inno Trans, established in 1996 in Germany.
In Korea, ROTREX, established in 2005 for the first time, marks the second exhibition this year, which is expected to solidify its standing. ROTREX 2005, held at KINTEX in Ilsan in July 2005, attracted 170 corporate exhibitors, which set up a total of 403 booths as well as about 12,000 spectators in what has yielded higher-than-expected outcomes. Government, business and academic circles now have to make concerted efforts to reposition ROTREX as Asia's biggest exhibition in the road & transportation sector.
, a Korean road & transportation leader, has organized an exclusive team designed to provide support for the successful hosting of the exhibition. The team has been providing aggressive support and conducting diverse activities from an early stage.
Taking a look into support activities, first, such international conferences as the sixth Heads of Road Authorities Meeting (HORA Meeting) and 83rd Road Engineering Association of Asia & Australasia (REAAA) will be coincided with ROTREX to make it a full-fledged on of foreign buyers and policy-makers.
Secondly, hosted by Expressway & Transportation Technology Institute, the Policy Debate, titled "Future Technology Development & National Trunk will be a forum designed to help civilian, government and academic circles explore ways of improving roads. Korea Road & Transportation Association, Korean Society of Road Engineers and Korean Society of Civil Engineers will participate in the forum.
Thirdly, a session on the latest achievements on transportation, structure, materials, environment and pavements by Expressway & Transportation Technology Institute will be displayed at the venue of ROTREX.
Lastly, will install 20 booths to become the largest exhibitor and show off its advanced road management system and know-how on expressway construction and management it has accumulated for 38 years. Spectators of the booths will get a glimpse into ex's new corporate identity, status of overseas exploration projects and general affairs as well as state-of-the-art technologies, including Hi-Pass toll collection system, disaster/road management integration system and business center.
Q: Would you tell our readers major duties of the Engineering Headquarters?
A: The Engineering Headquarters is composed of the Private Investment Highway Division, the Highway Design Division and the Construction Environment Office.
Private investment projects are taking the center stage following recent government's decision to cut down on government investments into the SOC sector. Reflecting changes of the times, the Private Investment Road Department has been carrying out such businesses as exploration of private investment road routes and participation, government-commissioned projects.
is participating in a project to build an expressway between Seoul and Chuncheon, the first such participation in the private investment project with a 10 percent stake. A 51 percent equity investment into a project to construct an expressway between Busan and Ulsan has been completed, negotiations on private investment projects to connect the Second Gyeongin Expressway and build an expressway between Suwon and Gwangmyeong are under way and four other private investment projects are under planning.
Making the most of the experiences and expertise on design, construction and maintenance/management it has accumulated for the past 38 years, KHC has been commissioned by the government to manage private investment projects. has demonstrated its technological prowess to the world with its participation in the successful completion of Korea's first private investment project, Incheon International Airport Highway and the construction of Incheon Bridge, the world's sixth longest cable-stayed sea bridge, now under way.
A task force designed to provide support for negotiating private investment projects was inaugurated in February 2006. acquired rights to mange projects for the construction of Pyeongtaek-Siheung, Incheon-Gimpo expressways. Negotiations on the projected Yeongcheon-Sangju, Second Yeongdong (Seoul-Wonju) expressways are under way.
is also operating a task force designed to revamp irrational systems and procedures related to private investment projects in a bid to proactively cope with changes of the construction environment. The Highway Design Division is responsible for working out the actual design of road projects, standards of road-related designs, specifications and other guidelines, which are virtually applied to all road projects being implemented across the nation.
During this year, the division is conducting 27 construction sections with a combined length of 158 km in five routes, now under construction, and it will have new projects for building a combined length of 127 km - 17 construction sections in five routes.
All construction process ranging from road design to completion will be rehearsed in virtual reality to minimize conflicts among the concerned parties and social losses, while diverse design standards will be improved in the interests of elderly drivers to brace for an era of aging population.
The division has established standards on the construction of drainage and facilities for preventing landslides to take precautions against possible disruptions of expressways in the case of such unusual weather conditions as downpours. It plans to focus on building up infrastructure for ubiquitous-highway for the future, while striving to upgrade standards for the design of advanced expressways.
The Construction Environment Office is charged with such responsibilities as construction of eco-friendly, high-quality expressways, development and adoption of futuristic site management systems and invigoration of environmental advisory committees. It performs such duties as prediction/analysis of the impact on natural landscape, reconstruction of eco-corriders in the major damaged ecological systems.
The offices works toward the renovation of expressway on-site management systems through the development of eco-friendly on-site management techniques, precautionary on-site technology guidance and co-existence inspections as well as the establishment of quality management standards and institutional reforms. It is also engaged in strengthening post-construction environment management of expressways, development/application of futuristic on-site management systems. is the first Korean public company to operate a policy consultation form led by environmental NGO bodies.
Q: I understand that your company's road technology has ac competitive edge as it has been proved in overseas construction. Would you say about the research outcomes?
A: In an effort to enhance competitiveness of Korea's road technology, is devoting its energies to conduct R&D activities with a vision of becoming a global research body capable of creating new road/transportation field through technology and value innovation.
Our corporation is working on a groundwork on the creation of a Korean-type pavement design method by building Asia's first real-size, two-lane, 7.7 km-long test road and evaluating the roads now in operation. A crash test lab, designed to evaluate the safety of transportation safety facilities, an accelerated pavement testing facility, aimed to test road functions immediately, and infrastructure for the diverse uses of large amounts of information arising from expressways have been already established. is seeking to build Korea's largest structural laboratory to conduct real structural tests.
The research infrastructure resulted to the application of 52 technologies, 1,403 cases of technological assistance and a 84 billion won reduction in construction costs during 2005. It has established a foundation for helping win the Korea Tech Innovation Grand Prize and KSCE Award in group technology for the second straight year.
ex's R&D sector aims to explore future growth engines according to the policy directions of each business based on the Highway Technology Roadmap, established in 2004 and implement 40 programs in each category and 825 detailed research tasks. Among the dramatic research tasks under way are a research on a bridge without joints that could prevent the discomfort caused by noises and vibration and cut down on maintenance costs by 27 percent compared to the conventional ones.
According to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme, designed to improve the public transportation system and solve traffic problems, a plan on 21 BRT routes in the Seoul metropolitan area was finalized. An enforcement code issued by the minister of construction and transportation stipulates the national application of the standard design of the BRT system, which is expected to stimulate motorists'uses of public transportation means and conserve energy.
is adopting a system of analyzing the surface of the bridge using a car-mounted penetration radar to prevent the removal of the damaged pavement parts from causing traffic snarls on the street.
It has developed a noise prediction program designed to conduct the scientific evaluation of noises caused by vehicles running through the expressway as well as construction sites in an effort to preempt complaints and grievances on the damages caused by noises. The program is placed on the corporation's website for free use in the interests of the general public.
A season has come in when a disaster prevention system should be in place to cope with the collapse of slanted slopes, caused by the recent climate, and subsequent disruption of roads. A related anti-disaster system, now being developed by would minimize design changes, reduce construction period and cut down on the human casualties and property damages.
Lastly, is offering an E-learning on-line educational services to spread its own technologies for the purpose of its contribution to the development of the nation. Currently, 10 courses in the road sector has been opening to train our officials as well as 5,400 people in the related industry. is also offering technological assistance services for Korean contractors'overseas exploration. It has educated officials from eight countries, including China and Vietnam.
Q: Technology standardization is an essential task. Would you be more specific about the status and plans of ex's standardizing design, construction and supervision.
A: An efficient management and exchanges of all materials and information related to the project process need to be standardized as the scope of managing expressway projects are wide in space and they are characterized by long-standing participation by diverse entities, including order, designer, contractor and subcontractor.
The on-line design manual, developed by for the purpose of efficient link and accumulation of materials in the design stage, has become a national standard in the civil engineering sector, thus contributing to exchange of information on road technology and efficient accumulation as well as the development of road technology.
A free, flexible E-document exchange using extensible markup language (XML) between the order and contractor is available to about 100 construction sites to reduce the time and costs for duty contacts with construction sites.
has introduced the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the first time in the country, a system of simplifying more than 22,000 standard management categories into 5,500, designed to ensure real-time management of construction progress, costs and accomplishments.
The corporation is accelerating its bid to standardize construction information by building up the futuristic Nexus construction System (NEX-CON), a system designed to ensure efficient management of 140 kinds of information, including contracts and design changes.
Q: Would you say about the status of major private investment projects as well as the merits and demerits of Build-Transfer-Lease (BTL) projects?
A: Three expressways, including the Incheon International Airport Highway that opened in November 1995, are in operation, and six other are under construction.
The BTL project is a kind of private investment project in which the private sector builds public facilities and the government leases them. The BTL method is not applied to the construction of expressways. The private investment method has such strong points: supplying urgently needed public facilities to the general public earlier than originally planned, enhancing the flexibility of government financial management and transferring the private sector's unused funds into long-term public investments. The BTL project, in an initial stage, continues to be revamped, yet briskly activated. nw

Bok Kee-chan, executive managing director for the Engineering Headquarters at Korea Expressway Corp ()