Faults In Korea’s Newest Expressway

I went for a drive on the new Daegu Busan Expressway near the Suseong Interchange on Thursday. I left Busan on the Gyeongbu Expressway at 6:17 p.m. and drove from the Dongdaegu Juncture to the Suseong Interchange. The highway toll-keeper charged me 9,200 won.

I protested that I prepared only 6,900 won for the trip because the Daegu Busan Expressway Co. had announced that it would charge a lower price for drivers who had taken the Gyeongbu Expressway before getting on the new expressway. The reply I got was to pay full price and get a refund later.

I asked him to reconsider and told him that it would be wrong to charge me the full price when it was clear that I had gotten off another expressway. He explained that headquarters had never notified him of this and that I would have to pay the full charge.

The company admitted its problems with the toll-keeping on the new expressway and had already announced that beginning on February 1, it would distinguish drivers who reached the toll gate via the Gyeongbu Expressway.

From this encounter, this reporter found out that the expressway is charging full price regardless. On Friday, when I called the company to ask for an explanation, it replied that it was planning to switch the toll-keeping to automatic toll systems beginning at 6:00 p.m. on that day.

In addition, the expressway is dangerously short of speeding violation cameras and safety equipment.

During my drive toward Busan around the Miryang Interchange, I tried doing 140 kilometers an hour. The limit was 110 kilometers an hour, but in the lane next to mine, cars were passing me. They must have been going around 180 kilometers an hour. There are many long stretches of road, but only one camera on each side of the road along the entire 82 kilometers of expressway. On other expressways, there is one at least every 10 to 20 kilometers in danger spots.

On the expressway’s opening day, two people died in a high speed collision near South Miryang. Seven other cars were damaged by pieces of tire because the roads were not kept in good condition. There were also small stones on the roadway around that damaged dozens of cars, fracturing windshields and headlights.

The road signs near the Daedong Interchange and the Dongdaegu and Suseong Interchanges are misleading. Mr. Park (43), a motorist, complained that he meant to get off the Suseong Interchange and head to Ulsan via the Gyeongbu Expressway, but instead got lost because the signs on two separating roads both led to Busan.

The 2.8 kilometer road from the Busan Daedong toll gate to the Daedong Crossroads is often clogged with traffic because it is only a two-lane road each way. What is normally a two-minute commute can take as long as 10 to 20 minutes during rush hour. It was clearly a bottleneck section, but the company ignored it and did not care to expand the roads.

There have been over 1,000 complaints posted on the new Daegu Busan Expressway website (www.dbeway.co.kr) and Korea Highway Corporation (www.freeway.co.kr) in just one week’s time.

Dong-Bin Seok mobidic@donga.com