Gwangju City to Conduct Special Inspections on Safety-Vulnerable Facilities During Thawing Period Starting from the 9th

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 8th that it will conduct a special safety inspection from the 9th of this month to the 3rd of next month to prevent safety accidents during the thawing season.

The thawing season is a period when underground moisture melts, weakening the ground and causing ground relaxation that can lead to slope collapses and other safety accident risks, so special attention is required for steep slopes and facilities at construction sites.

This inspection will form a joint inspection team consisting of the city, autonomous districts, and the city safety management advisory group to focus on 159 steep slopes and 46 construction sites such as apartments and buildings, concentrating on sites with less than 50% progress and locations with many risk factors such as retaining walls, stone walls, and cut slopes.

Additionally, safety measures will be checked for large-scale cut slopes, excavation work vulnerable during the thawing season such as underground digging, work at locations with high fall risk, and high-risk work such as tower crane operations.

In particular, regarding the worker burial accident at the apartment access road construction site in Maruk-dong, Seo-gu, which occurred last January, the inspection will focus on compliance with the appropriate slope angle of excavation slopes, the installation status of temporary structures such as earth retaining walls, and the adequacy of protective measures for adjacent structures such as retaining walls around the construction site.

If the safety inspection results indicate an increased risk of disaster and urgent safety measures are needed, immediate corrective actions will be taken on-site. Construction sites with inadequate safety management or violations will be strictly dealt with according to relevant laws, including work stoppage, and will be systematically managed through big data.

Baek Gwang-chun, Director of the City Disaster Prevention Division, said, “We will thoroughly conduct preventive inspections to ensure no safety accidents occur during the thawing season,” and added, “We also ask citizens to report any safety accident risks to the National Safety Report Center.”

Meanwhile, last year, the city inspected 158 steep slopes and 53 disaster-vulnerable facilities during the thawing season, identifying 94 as suitable and pointing out 117 unsuitable cases with 250 issues, which were improved.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.