67.2% of Domestic Public Facilities Seismic Reinforcement Completed ... 4.9%p Increase Compared to Previous Year

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Releases 2019 Seismic Reinforcement Measures Implementation Results

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Among 188,880 existing public facilities such as public buildings and roads in South Korea, it has been found that 126,994 sites have seismic performance.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 29th that as a result of promoting seismic reinforcement measures last year, the seismic rate secured rose by 4.9 percentage points from the previous year to 67.2%.

The seismic reinforcement measures are plans established and promoted annually by each institution to improve the seismic performance of their respective facilities according to the basic plan for seismic reinforcement of existing public facilities.

Seismic Resistance Rates and Seismic Reinforcement Measures Status by Year

The seismic rate of existing public facilities has been continuously increasing since the first phase of the basic seismic reinforcement plan was established in 2011. After the 2017 Pohang earthquake, investment in related budgets significantly increased compared to the previous five years (2011-2016) with 4.02 times in 2017, 5.69 times in 2018, and 6.02 times in 2019. This increase led to a rise in the number of secured seismic performance cases, resulting in a rapid increase in the seismic rate.

The government invested a total of 872.2 billion KRW last year to secure seismic performance for 8,800 sites across 20 types of facilities, including public buildings (3,805 cases), school facilities (3,083 cases), and road facilities (806 cases).

As of the end of last year, among 33 types of facilities, six types including high-speed rail, multipurpose dams, reactors and related facilities achieved a 100% seismic rate. Ten types of facilities, such as urban rail (99.7%) and power facilities (99.0%), secured a seismic rate of over 80%.

By institution, investment amounts in central government ministries were led by the Ministry of Education (425.4 billion KRW), Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (26.6 billion KRW), and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (23.5 billion KRW). Among local governments, Seoul (107.5 billion KRW), Gyeonggi (42.8 billion KRW), and Gyeongnam (24.3 billion KRW) ranked highest.

Meanwhile, as the second phase (2016?2020) of the basic plan for seismic reinforcement of existing public facilities comes to an end this year, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to establish the third phase (2021?2025) basic plan based on the results of seismic reinforcement projects conducted so far.

In the third phase plan, priorities for seismic reinforcement will be set for each facility considering factors such as low seismic rates, importance, aging, and scale. Core facilities within each facility will be designated for focused seismic rate management.

Han Sung-won, Disaster Management Policy Officer at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "Since 2017, investment in seismic reinforcement projects for public facilities has been continuously increasing. We will continue to promote seismic performance evaluations and reinforcement construction to ensure substantial projects according to the basic seismic reinforcement plan."

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