Daejeon 'Tram Project' Direction Outlined... Temigogae Undergrounding Remains a 'Challenge'

Daejeon Line 2 Route Map. Provided by Daejeon City

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The direction of the Daejeon Urban Railway Line 2 tram project has been outlined.

According to Daejeon City on the 16th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance recently held a total project cost adjustment review committee and approved the first total project cost of the Daejeon tram project at 749.2 billion KRW.

This amount is 3.6 billion KRW less than the 752.8 billion KRW project cost proposed by the Korea Development Institute (KDI) in August last year after reviewing the appropriateness of the preliminary feasibility study exemption project plan.

Specifically, the city increased the project cost by 22.5 billion KRW for the Seodaejeon Overpass underground construction and 4.8 billion KRW for vehicle manufacturing supervision fees, while the entire 30.9 billion KRW contingency fund was reduced according to the total project cost management guidelines.

Among the two sections where the need for tram line underground construction was raised, the Seodaejeon Overpass was decided to be underground, while the decision on Temi Hill was deferred.

First, at the review committee, the Seodaejeon Overpass section was changed from constructing only the two lanes where the tram will operate as a deep tunnel to undergrounding all eight lanes. The city's proposal to demolish the aging (over 50 years since construction) Seodaejeon Overpass and underground all eight lanes, including the existing six lanes, was accepted.

However, the Ministry of Economy and Finance agreed to the full undergrounding of all lanes of the Seodaejeon Overpass on the condition that the city bears 22.5 billion KRW (the shortfall) out of the total project cost of 94.5 billion KRW invested in this project.

On the other hand, the undergrounding of Temi Hill was temporarily deferred. The city proposed a plan to lower the summit of Temi Hill by constructing a 1.06 km long two-lane tunnel. However, due to financial pressure caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the project cost for the undergrounding of Temi Hill was not reflected in the total project cost adjustment.

Accordingly, the city plans to conduct a detailed review of safety and traffic congestion during the design phase regarding the deferred Temi Hill undergrounding plan and renegotiate.

Meanwhile, the city expects that the basic plan approval will be granted by next month after submitting a revised basic plan reflecting the total project cost adjustment results to the Daejeon Metropolitan Government Committee. Also, since 16.7 billion KRW for design service fees has been secured, the city anticipates no issues in starting the design service in October immediately after receiving the basic plan approval from the committee.

Sung Gi-moon, head of the Tram Metropolitan Headquarters of the city, said, “The adjustment of the total project cost for the Daejeon tram project is significant as it has passed a major hurdle in the basic plan change approval process,” and added, “The city plans to prepare the optimal alternative for the Temi Hill undergrounding project, which was not reflected in this adjustment, during the detailed design stage and renegotiate.”

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