Gyeonggi-do: "Safety Management of Bridges, etc. Should Also Be Included in the 'Special Act on Aging Planned Cities'"

Seongnam-si Bundang-gu Jeongja Bridge Pedestrian Walkway Collapse
[Image Source=Yonhap News]

Gyeonggi Province recently requested the government to add provisions for safety inspection and management of infrastructure to the "Special Act on the Maintenance and Support of Aging Planned Cities (Draft)" that the government is legislating to redevelop aging cities such as the 1st generation new towns in Bundang and Sanbon within the province.

Earlier, the National Assembly proposed the "Special Act on the Maintenance and Support of Aging Planned Cities (Draft)" on March 24, which promotes the redevelopment of aging planned cities, including the 1st generation new towns, by establishing basic policies and implementation systems for basic plans by the state and local governments.

In the proposal, the province demands that safety management be reflected when establishing basic policies and plans for the redevelopment of aging planned cities by the state and others, and that stable funding sources and usage grounds for a special account be included in the special act.

The province argues that the existing special act draft focuses mainly on apartment redevelopment, thus omitting provisions related to safety management and maintenance of aging infrastructure such as bridges.

Yoon Sung-jin, head of the Provincial Urban Regeneration Promotion Team, stated, "In light of the recent bridge collapse accident in Bundang, we judged that it is necessary to prepare safety measures for aging infrastructure in the 1st generation new towns, which led us to make this request to the government. We will continue to urge the National Assembly and government to emphasize its importance and actively discuss it during the legislative process, and strive for the prompt enactment of the special act on aging planned cities to enable systematic redevelopment."

The province expects that once the special act draft passes the National Assembly, the scope of redevelopment targets will expand beyond new towns to include land development districts over 1 million square meters that have been completed for more than 20 years, allowing aging districts within the province to benefit from the special act.

Meanwhile, on April 5, the day of the Jeongja Bridge accident, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dong-yeon requested an urgent inspection by the end of April of 58 C-grade bridges managed by the Gyeonggi Provincial Construction Headquarters and bridges rated C or below managed by city and county governments, similar to Jeongja Bridge.

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