'Korea Road Forum'Being Inaugurated
on Road Day Anniversary

Non-profit organization designed to serve as opinion leader for people interested in the road/transportation field

The government is focusing on expanding long-distance expressway networks in metropolitan cities and eliminating bottlenecks within cities, a senior official of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said.
Cho Yong-joo, director general of Road Bureau at the MOCT, said, "Continuous expansion of such traffic facilities as expressways and national roads has eased traffic problems between regions. On the other hand, traffic congestion in urban areas has been exacerbating as traffic congestion costs there account for 14.6 trillion won or 61.5 percent of the nation's total costs estimated at 23.7 trillion won." "The ministry is raising investments into building detours to the existing national roads leading to small and mid-size cities while strengthening support for expanding long-distance expressway networks in metropolitan cities and easing bottlenecks in the cities,"he said.
Director-General Cho touched on other issues, including private participation infrastructure (PPI) projects during an interview with NewsWorld. The following are the excerpts of his interview.
Question: Will you tell our readers about the significance of Road Day and anniversary events that take place on the occasion of the anniversary?
Answer: Road Day was inaugurated in 1991 to celebrate the July 7, 1970 opening of the Gyeongbu (Seoul-Busan) Expressway, a driving force behind the nation's economic strides, recollect challenges and creative spirit of those in the road and transportation industry and facilitate continuous technology development. Diverse events, including an anniversary ceremony, a technology seminar and a new technology fair, have been since held.
The 2007 Road Day anniversary ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Seoul Kyoyukmunhwahoekwan in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, on July 6 at 11 a.m. During the ceremony, the minister of construction and transportation will deliver a commemorative speech, meritorious persons will be presented with awards and the "Korea Road Forum"will be inaugurated. A road/transportation seminar on long-life and eco-friendly road pavement technology will be held between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on July 6.
On display at the lobby of the Seoul Kyoyukmunhwahoekwan as a side event of a series of anniversary activities will be also a selection of "A Hundred Beautiful Roads of Korea"by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation and a selection of 50 "Roads"by Korea Expressway Corp.
Q: As to the inaugural meeting of the "Korea Road Forum"will you describe the purpose of the establishment of the forum and future plans?
A: The Korean government has earmarked 15 trillion won to 17 trillion won in its budget for investments into the road sector every year. However, the problem is that now there is no a private entity that can point out problems in the field and provide support in establishing and implementing policies on roads, so we are faced with difficulties in providing proper road/transportation services to people and developing policies. In this regard, I think the establishment of Korea Road Forum is significant.
The forum is a non-profit organization designed to not only serve as a "think-tank"of those interested in the road/transportation field and experts but the forum will also collect opinions on road policies and suggest policy directions by analyzing international trends and introducing advanced policies. The inaugural meeting for the establishment of the forum was held on May 22 at the grand conference room of Korea Expressway Corp. The forum is to be officially inaugurated on July 6 after a permit for the establishment of the non-profit organization is obtained in June. People from several walks of life, including academic circles, state-run research institutes, business circles, civic bodies and the media will be encouraged to participate in the forum. I hope that the Korea Road Forum will evolve into a full-fledged top-rated private body in the road/transportation field that not only aggressively implements discussion, seminars, research/study and counseling, but also suggests diverse solutions to road/transportation problems by collecting a wide range of opinions through avid exchanges with international bodies related to the road/transportation sector.
Q: Will you elaborate on the current status of the nation's road networks?
A: There are high-speed national roads (expressways), general national roads, special metropolitan city roads, metropolitan city roads, provincial roads, city/county/ward roads, all under control of the Act on Roads as well as farming/fishing village roads, which are stipulated by other acts. Expressways and general national roads are managed by the state and other roads, by the relevant district administrative bodies.
As of the end of 2006, Korea saw its road network rising to an aggregate 102,061 km - expressways with a combined length of 3,103 km,; general national roads, 14,225 km,; special and metropolitan city roads, 17,738 km; provincial roads, 17,677 km; and the remainder, 49,318 km. The state manages 17,328 km; accounting for 17 percent of the total combined length of the nation's roads.
Q: Will you say major roads whose construction have begun or are beginning and have already completed or are to be finished within this year?
A: The government is striving to build up an expressway network so that motorists can reach any expressway within 30 minutes from any location across the nation with the goal of making the whole nation accessible within a half-day. About 2.59 trillion won has been earmarked for the implementation of projects to build 16 new expressway routes with a combined length of 997 km, including the planned Jeonju-Gwnagyang route and expand 12 expressway routes with a total length of 487 km. Four routes - Gimcheon-Hyeonpung, Cheongwon-Sangju, Iksan-Jangsu and Gochang-Jangseong expressways - are to be open to traffic. To this end, Korea Expressway Corp. plans to raise 1 trillion won in asset-backed securities (ABS) and other financial instruments to make additional investments into the construction of expressways.
The government has set aside 3,105.2 billion won to help national roads contribute to cutting down on logistics costs and stepping up industrial support. Twenty national roads with a combined length of 152 km, including the National Road No. 37 connecting Dupo and Cheoncheon are to be inaugurated. The government is focusing on completing the ongoing projects while refraining from launching new projects. Accordingly, the number of new projects has reduced to 22 projects during 2007, nearly half of 40 recorded during 2005. Fourteen new road projects with a combined length of 109 km, including a road for detouring the National Road No. 42 and projects to expand eight routes with a combined length of 43 km, including the Gwansan-Byeokjae section will be launched within this year.
Q: Will you explain the government's mid- and long-term road development plans?
A: In 1992, the ministry established a plan to refurbish a national road network in 1992 and a plan to build a road network in a grid pattern with seven artery expressways running from north to south and nine arteries running from east to west. It has pushed ahead with projects to expand national truck roads by establishing a road refurbishment master plan in 1998 and revising the plan in 2006.
As of 2005, the nation had established a plan to build up a trunk road network with a combined length of 6,527 km. Out of the total length, 3,013 km is in public use, 1,908 km is under construction or in a designing stage, and the remaining 1,606 km is to be completed by 2020. In this regard, the ministry has been implementing a mid- and long-term plan, being revised every five years to carry out projects to build general national roads for supplementing national trunk roads, detouring roads and government-financed provincial roads. In particular, the plan calls for raising the portion of general national roads with more than four lanes to 50 percent by 2010.
Continuous expansion of such traffic facilities as expressways and national roads has eased traffic problems between regions. On the other hand, traffic congestion in urban areas has been exacerbating as traffic congestion costs there account for 14.6 trillion won or 61.5 percent of the nation's total costs estimated at 23.7 trillion won.
The ministry is raising investments into building detours to the existing national roads leading to small and mid-size cities while strengthening support for expanding long-distance expressway networks in metropolitan cities and eliminating bottlenecks in the cities. It plans to push ahead with 20 route projects as part of efforts to build ring expressways in provincial metropolitan cities and carry out the "7x4+3R"plan for the Seoul Metropolitan area calling for constructing seven trunk roads running from east and west, four artery roads running from north to south and three ring roads by 2020. Fifteen projects designed to ease bottlenecks in metropolitan cities will be implemented by 2010.
The government plans to continue to build up state-managed road networks by revamping and complementing the road refurbishment master plan with five-year road business plans, while managing a nationwide road network, including roads, managed by each local administrative body.
Q: Will you give the details of plans to attract private participation infrastructure (PPI) projects in an effort to tide over a shortage of the government's fiscal resources for the expansion of infrastructure?
A: Of late, the government budget for building infrastructure, including roads, is on the decline. The government is aggressively adopting means of attracting investments from the private sector to solve the budgetary shortage.
Currently, 20 PPI projects have been done or are being pushed. Out of the total, three routes with a combined length of 239.5 km - Cheonan-Nonsan Expressway, Incheon International Airport Expressway and Daegu-Busan Expressway - are in public use. Six routes, including the planned Seoul-Chuncheon Expressway, with an aggregate length of 182.3 km are under construction. Negotiations on the actual implementation of six routes with a combined length of 266.3 km, including Pyeongtaek-Shiheung and Suwon-Gwangmyeong expressways, are under way. Bidding for the construction of the two routes, including Seoul-Munsan expressway, are proceeding, while those for two others- Hwado-Yangpyeong and Seoul-Gwangmyeong expressways are to be put on public notice.
About 20 PPI projects are being proposed based on a plan on the construction of an expressway network in the Seoul metropolitan area, established in December 2005. By the end of this year, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements plans to establish an actual implementation plan for the Seoul metropolitan expressway construction scheme, which is to determine whether PPI projects will be carried out or not and the timing of implementation.
Q: Will you be more specific about efforts to expand such advanced traffic facilities as the intelligent transportation systems (ITS)?
A: ITS refers to advanced transportation systems of the 21st Century, designed to provide real-time information on roads and vehicles via state-of-the-art technologies related to transportation, electronics, telecommunications and control in order to maximize convenience, road utilization rates and promote traffic safety. ITS is composed of information-collecting equipment, including vehicle detection systems and automated vehicle identification (AVI) and closed circuit TV (CCTV) as well as equipment for providing information - variable-message sign (VMS).
Currently, the ITS infrastructure is in place along all expressways across the nation and traffic information is offered through the Expressway Traffic Information Center in Gungnae-dong. About 1,549 km of national roads, 11 percent of the aggregate has been operation with ITS, and the ITS infrastructure will be expanded to 2,063 km step-by-step by 2010. nw

Cho Yong-joo, director general of Road Bureau at the Ministry of Construction and Transportation