Roadbed for High-speed Railroad to be Completed This Month

The construction of roadbed for the 1st phase of the high-speed railroad project will be completed this month. Roadbed construction is to lay the basis, on which railway tracks are placed.

With the completion of the roadbed construction, the basic construction project for the high-speed railroad between Seoul and Busan, which was launched in June, 1992, is wrapped up in 10 years.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, the work for the 1st phase of the project was about 85.8% finished as of late July.

Roadbed constructions in 19 out of 21 sections of roadbed construction between Seoul and Daegu have already been completed, showing 99.6% of completion rate. The construction of the remaining two sections will be completed by the end of this month.

An official of the Korea Train Express (KTA) said, "Roadbed construction is the core part of the high-speed railroad project. After we conduct trial run and the installation of railway tracks and electronic and communications equipment, we will be able to open the Seoul-Daegu section."

The authorities have already secured necessary land for mainline, showing 99.5% of completion rate.

The installation process of railway track was wrapped up in July 2000 between Cheonan and Daejeon, and will be completed next month between Seoul and Cheonan.

72.2% of work has been done in the Daejeon and Daegu section, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Other processes have been in a smooth operation.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation embarked on the preparation process for early opening of the 2nd phase of the project linking Daegu to Busan in 2008, two years ahead of the schedule.

To this end, the ministry selected construction companies that will take charge of constructing two sections among 18, and also decided to select additional constructors for six other sections by the end of this year.

The KTA caused a public stir when it moved its headquarters to downtown Seoul last April in violation of the related law. The law bans the construction or enlargement of public buildings whose size is more than 300 pyeong in the metropolitan area in an attempt to restrict the concentration of population to Seoul and its surroundings.

Regarding this, the KTA decided to move its headquarters to Asan, Chungcheong province.

But the proposed Asan headquarters are expected to be available after 2007. So the agency plans to use the current office until the first half of 2004, then provide a temporary office inside the Cheonan station in the second half of 2004.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com