Gyeonggi-do, Maintenance of 'Multifunctional Road Shoulders (Gatgil)'... Securing Pedestrian Passage Space

Improvement of Passage Spaces for Pedestrians or Wheelchair Users

Gyeonggi Provincial Government Northern Office

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Gyeonggi Province is launching a maintenance project this year to convert the 'road shoulders (gatgil)' of local roads within the province into pedestrian passage spaces.

According to the province on the 8th, local roads with a daily pedestrian count of 150 or more will be promoted under the existing 'Local Road Sidewalk Installation Project,' while local roads with fewer than 150 pedestrians will be converted into multifunctional road shoulders (gatgil) instead of sidewalks.

The minimum effective width of the pedestrian space on local road shoulders (gatgil) will be 1.2 meters to allow pedestrians or wheelchair users to safely pass from vehicles.

The pavement materials will be asphalt or cement, which are easy to maintain and manage and have low construction costs.

However, depending on the characteristics of the local roads, some sections will have sidewalks installed, and some sections will have multifunctional road shoulders (gatgil) concurrently.

In the future, resident satisfaction surveys will be conducted on sections with multifunctional road shoulders installed, and deficiencies for vulnerable traffic groups will be supplemented.

Previously, from 2017 to 2024, the province carried out a sidewalk installation project targeting 188 locations (196 km) of province-managed local roads and completed 90 locations (85 km).

However, only 25.7% (450.8 km) of the total 1,754.1 km of province-managed local roads had sidewalks installed.

Accordingly, in December last year, the province and the Gyeonggi Research Institute derived 'Improvement Measures for Local Road Sidewalk Installation Standards' and decided to promote the 'Multifunctional Road Shoulder Maintenance Project.'

Kim Chang-wook, head of the Road Safety Division, said, "This local road multifunctional road shoulder maintenance project will further expand safe pedestrian spaces," adding, "It is expected to help reduce the budget through efficient sidewalk maintenance and management."

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