Gyeonggi-do Conducts Safety Management Inspections to Prevent Major Accidents in Bridges and Tunnels

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Gyeonggi Province will conduct a special audit on safety management practices targeting public facilities, construction sites, and environmental infrastructure managed and operated by city and county governments until the 14th of next month.

Earlier, in October last year, Gyeonggi Province selected "Safety Management Practices for Preventing Serious Accidents" as the theme for the special audit through a public contest involving citizen auditors.

The Serious Accident Punishment Act, enacted in January last year, stipulates that if a serious accident occurs at a workplace or public facility, the head of the local government who failed to fulfill safety and health obligations will also be held accountable as a management responsible person.

Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province plans to collaborate with the safety management department to receive safety inspection records and accident occurrence data from the management entities of public projects with risks of serious accidents, such as bridges, tunnels, public construction sites, and environmental infrastructure, and conduct on-site audits.

The pre-audit targets include ▲1,239 bridges and tunnels ▲36 water purification facilities ▲414 sewage treatment plants ▲26 incineration facilities ▲9 landfill sites ▲construction sites, among others.

Gyeonggi Province will especially deploy citizen auditors with practical expertise in civil engineering, architecture, environment, and firefighting to focus on whether safety and health obligations are properly implemented at public facilities and public projects during this audit.

Choi Eun-soon, Auditor of Gyeonggi Province, emphasized, "We aim to inspect the safety management status of public facilities to prevent any unfortunate incidents like the collapse of Jeongja Bridge in Bundang that occurred in April, thereby preventing potential serious accidents. We will continue to expand special audits involving on-site expert citizen auditors to make Gyeonggi Province a safer place."

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