'Pedestrian Path Collapse' Bundang Jeongja Bridge, Grade C in 2021 Detailed Inspection

B Grade Last Year After Conservative Construction

On the 5th, it was confirmed that Jeongja Bridge (6-lane two-way) in Jeongja-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, where the walkway collapsed causing 2 casualties, received a C-grade rating indicating partial repairs were needed in the 2021 detailed safety inspection.

On the morning of the 5th, at Jeongja Bridge in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, where pedestrian walkways were installed on both sides of the bridge, one side suddenly collapsed, resulting in one death and one injury. Firefighters and other officials are busily moving around the scene.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Seongnam City announced this through an emergency written briefing regarding the accident on the afternoon of the same day. According to the results, from August to December 2022, surface repairs and cross-section repairs of the deck slab were carried out, and in the regular inspection conducted shortly after the repair work in the same year, the bridge reportedly received a B-grade rating, indicating good condition.

Jeongja Bridge is a facility subject to the Special Act on the Safety and Maintenance of Facilities, requiring a detailed inspection once every two years and a regular inspection every six months. The city stated, "The exact cause of the accident will be investigated by the Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation through a detailed safety diagnosis of the bridge. After identifying the cause, we will proceed with repair and reinforcement of the bridge," and added, "We will also conduct a comprehensive safety inspection of all 211 bridges."

Earlier that morning, the railing walkway of Jeongja Bridge, which crosses Tancheon Stream in Jeongja-dong, Bundang-gu, collapsed, resulting in one pedestrian's death and another sustaining serious injuries. Jeongja Bridge is a 6-lane two-way bridge constructed in 1993 alongside the development of Bundang New Town. It has a total length of 108 meters. The collapsed walkway section was estimated to be about 50 meters long.

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