"Preventing Recurrence of Gwangju Hakdong Disaster"... Strengthening Safety Management for Building Demolition Work

[Asia Economy Reporter Tae-min Ryu] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that safety management throughout the entire process of building demolition work?from 'permission-supervision-construction'?will be strengthened to the level of new construction projects. This is to prevent tragedies like the building collapse accident that occurred at the Gwangju Hakdong redevelopment site from happening again.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stated on the 2nd that it will implement subordinate laws (enforcement ordinances, enforcement rules, etc.) of the Building Management Act, revised in February this year to enhance safety in all stages from permission to supervision and construction of building demolition work, starting from the 4th.

The revision expands the scope of demolition work requiring permission and mandates that the permission target must undergo review by the Building Committee. For example, if there is a bus stop near the construction site with a high flow of people, even if the scale of the demolition building is subject to notification, permission must be obtained, thereby expanding the scope of demolition work requiring permission.

Additionally, the permit authority must have the demolition plan, construction method, and safety measures reviewed by the Building Committee to verify their appropriateness, thereby strengthening safety from the permission stage. Until now, permission could be granted as long as experts such as architects or engineers reviewed the demolition plan regardless of who prepared it, but going forward, the system has been strengthened so that experts take responsibility for preparing the plan.

Furthermore, only those who have received supervision training can supervise demolition work, and refresher training must be completed every three years to ensure that the expertise of supervisors is continuously maintained, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

To enable permit authorities to systematically manage the progress of demolition work, inspection authority and supervision oversight measures will also be strengthened. Permit authorities will be granted the power to immediately order improvements not only before accepting the start-of-construction notification but also if, based on site inspections, they judge that the work is unlikely to proceed safely.

In addition, supervisors are required to take photos and videos of major demolition tasks and register their supervision work daily in the Building Life Cycle Management System, allowing permit authorities to check the progress of supervision at any time.

Moreover, to prevent unauthorized changes to demolition methods and equipment at the demolition site that differ from the permitted content, a procedure has been established requiring prior appropriateness review by the permit authority when major changes to permitted (notified) items occur.

If permission is not obtained for building demolition, penalties will be strengthened from the existing fine of up to 10 million KRW to imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million KRW. New penalty provisions have also been established imposing fines of up to 20 million KRW or imprisonment of up to two years or fines of up to 20 million KRW on supervisors and workers who fail to perform their duties diligently.

Um Jeong-hee, Director of Building Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, “We expect that this revision will significantly enhance the safety of demolition sites,” and added, “We will continuously improve the system to ensure thorough safety management at the sites.”

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