Busan City Signs Preliminary Agreement for 'Seunghak Tunnel Private Investment Project' ... Aiming to Start Construction in Early 2024

North Port to Gadeokdo Reduced by 20 Minutes... Supporting the Bid for the 2030 Busan World Expo!

Swift Administrative Support, Construction Completion by 2028, Targeting Opening in Early 2029

Location map of the 'Seunghak Tunnel Private Investment Project' section from Sasang-gu (Eomgung-dong), Busan to Bukhang (Chungjang-daero, Jung-gu).

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City signed a preliminary agreement on September 27 for the ‘Seunghak Tunnel Private Investment Project,’ which connects Eomgung-dong in Sasang-gu (Eomgung Bridge) and Jungang-dong in Jung-gu (Chungjang-daero).

A preliminary agreement is the stage just before signing the implementation agreement, meaning that negotiations for the implementation agreement between the competent authority, Busan City, and the negotiation counterpart have been virtually completed.

The Seunghak Tunnel private investment project, based on the BTO method, has a total length of 7.69 km and a four-lane (two lanes each way) scale. The construction period is 5 years, and the operation period is 30 years. The toll fee is 1,500 KRW (based on the fixed price as of March 2016), which is 95 KRW less than the third-party proposal (1,595 KRW) for passenger cars.

The BTO method is a system where a private business operator directly constructs the facility, transfers ownership to the government or others, and then operates the facility directly for a certain period to earn revenue.

The city plans to sign the implementation agreement within this year after completing related administrative procedures such as reviewing the draft implementation agreement by the Korea Development Institute Public Investment Management Center (KDI PIMAC), deliberation by the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Private Investment Review Committee, and reporting to the council.

The Seunghak Tunnel private investment project took about two and a half years in negotiations due to suspension and delays caused by the unexpected global impact of COVID-19.

Accordingly, although the negotiation period was longer than expected, the city, as the competent authority, decided to actively support the prompt completion of subsequent administrative procedures so that construction can begin in early 2024.

If related administrative procedures such as preparation and approval of the implementation plan approval documents, environmental impact assessment consultations, and land compensation proceed smoothly, it is expected that the tunnel can open in early 2029, before the 2030 Busan World Expo.

Once the Seunghak Tunnel opens, the travel time from Bukhang to Gadeokdo New Airport (during peak hours) will be reduced by about 20 minutes from the current 1 hour to 40 minutes, greatly improving accessibility to Gadeokdo New Airport.

This is also expected to significantly contribute to attracting and successfully hosting the 2030 Busan World Expo.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “The Seunghak Tunnel construction project will play a major role not only in alleviating traffic congestion in the old downtown and western Busan areas but also in resolving induced traffic volumes caused by the construction of Gadeokdo New Airport, Bukhang redevelopment, and the hosting of the 2030 Busan World Expo,” adding, “We will make every effort to carry out administrative procedures and promote the project with the goal of opening in 2029.”

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