Seoul City Inspects 7,622 Disaster-Vulnerable Facilities in Preparation for Thaw Season

Joint Public-Private Inspection of Major Facilities Conducted

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 23rd that it is conducting intensive safety inspections of disaster-vulnerable facilities such as excavation construction sites in preparation for the thawing season, together with private experts. The inspections will continue until the 31st of next month.

The city expressed its determination to make the best efforts to prevent accidents this year as well, so that incidents like past construction site retaining wall collapses do not recur.

The thawing season safety inspections are being conducted with the participation of relevant departments including the Safety General Office, Housing Policy Office, Han River Project Headquarters, Green City and Leisure Bureau, Waterworks Headquarters, and Urban Infrastructure Headquarters, targeting a total of 7,622 facilities.

In particular, the 'Seoul City Major Accident Monitoring Team (23 members)' and the 'Seoul City Safety Management Advisory Group (190 members)', composed of experienced field experts in the architectural and civil engineering sectors, are deployed for special inspections.

Along with public campaigns to prevent safety accidents during the thawing season, education on on-site safety inspection methods will be conducted to ensure a city-wide safety inspection effort.

Meanwhile, during last year's thawing season safety inspection period, the Safety General Office inspected 2,399 vulnerable facilities, identified 1,077 signs of risk, and completed repairs and reinforcements.

The city plans to complete inspections by the end of March this year and will immediately take corrective actions on-site where possible, while preparing fundamental prevention measures for major issues identified.

Furthermore, the results of the thawing season safety inspections will be registered in the Seoul City Integrated Safety Inspection Management System, and thorough follow-up management such as repairs and reinforcements will be conducted for the pointed-out issues.

Yoo Chang-su, Deputy Mayor for Administration of Seoul, stated, "Since facility collapse accidents during the thawing season can lead to casualties, it is important to prevent accident causes in advance," adding, "We will conduct focused inspections on facilities closely related to citizens' lives and promote thorough safety management through continuous monitoring." He also urged, "We ask citizens to report any places requiring safety measures in daily life to the civil complaint hotline 120 or the relevant district office."

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