New Toll Highway Opens

62 km long highway built with private funds features 21 tunnels and 53 bridges to protect ecology between Seoul, Chuncheon

The new Seoul-Chuncheon Highway, built with private investments, opened to traffic for the first time on July 15, cutting travel time between the two cities to 38 minutes from 70 minutes, announced the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.
A ceremony to open the new highway took place at the Dongsan rest stop on the new highway with Minister Chung Jong-hwan among the dignitaries.
The new expressway was originally scheduled to open in August, but the opening was pushed up to July 15 so that vacationers heading for the East Coast could use it, the ministry said.
The ministry said the new expressway cost 2.272 trillion won to build, including 1.295 trillion won in private funds and 977.3 billion won from the government, The expressway includes eight stops, two resting places, 21 tunnels and 53 bridges.
The new highway is expected to relieve traffic congestion on Pwhich will be linked with the Seoul-Chuncheon National Highway when it is completed in December and when the Dong Hongchon-Yangyang Highway, stretching for 91.6 km is completed in 2014, the ministry said.
The toll charge for the full length of the highway is set at 5,900 won and 1,000 won for the first 10 km, lower than the initially projected charge. Chuncheon City plans to cut 700 won in toll fees for the city's residents and the government plans to set up two different toll fees, one for weekdays and the other for weekends.
The new privately funded toll highway features tunnels and bridges taking up 40 percent of the length of the highway to protect the ecology of the areas and is thus being called a green highway, representative of the green growth era in compliance with the Nature Ecology Restoration Law.
The new toll highway starts from Hail-dong, Gangdong Ward in Seoul and ends in Joyang-ri, Dongsan County in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, stretching for 61.41 km with four to six lanes built on a BOT system, allowing the private investors to operate the highway for 30 years and then transfer the rights to the government.
Construction was launched on Aug. 11, 2004 and was completed on July 15, 2009 by the Seoul-Chuncheon Highway Corp., set up by a consortium of private investors.
Included among the investors are the Hyundai Development Co., Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., Lotte Engineering and Construction Co., Korea Expressway Corp., the Gangwon Provincial Government and the Chuncheon Municipal Government, among others.
The benefits from the opening of the new toll highway are: cutting travel time from Seoul to Chuncheon by 30 minutes; invigoration of tourism in Gangwon Province; savings in expenses such as fuel costs and cutting travel time worth some 249 billion won annually. nw

(clockwise) Prime Minister Han Seung-soo makes a congratulatory speech at the opening ceremony of the Seoul-Chuncheon Expressway on July 15. President Choi Kwang-soo of the Seoul-Chuncheon Highway Corp. An aerial view of the Balsan 1st Bridge in the new Seoul-Chuncheon Expressway.