Road-Widening Project May Be Suspended

The government has decided to perform a feasibility study on a road-widening project between Yeoju and Yangpyeong in Geonggi Province that was under criticism for wasting taxpayers’ money.

If the study proves that the project is a waste of money, it will be suspended. It would be the first time the government has suspended a project for being wasteful and inefficient.

Stung by the criticism that the plan is waste of money, the Ministry of Planning and Budget announced that it would conduct the feasibility test on Route 37 between Yeoju and Yangpyeong with the help of the Korea Development Institute in the first half of the year.

The project is designed to broaden a 15.7km-long stretch of the road from two lanes to four lanes between the Yangpyeong intersection in Bekan-ri, Yangpyeong-eup, Yangpyeong-gun, and the Daesin intersection in Botong-ri, Daesin-myeon, Yeoju-gun.

The design for the project has been completed, but 177.1 billion won has yet to be allocated.

According to the ministry’s field inspection, since the project was decided before the adoption of preliminary feasibility tests, it lacked pre-inspection procedure. In addition, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation expected traffic on the road to be 14,000 vehicles on an average day in 2009, but the current traffic is only about 10,000 vehicles a day.

Do-Young Kim nirvana1@donga.com