Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin "Lawsuit for Damages Against Kumho Construction and LH Over Jeongja Bridge Collapse"

Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin is holding a press conference immediately after the collapse accident of the Bundang Tancheon Jeongja Bridge pedestrian walkway in April.

Shin Sang-jin, the mayor of Seongnam City, announced that he will file a lawsuit for damages against Kumho Construction and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) regarding the cause of the collapse accident of Jeongja Bridge along the Bundang Tancheon Stream last April.

On the 12th, Mayor Shin stated in the document titled "Seongnam City's Position on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Investigation Announcement on the Cause of the Jeongja Bridge Collapse Accident," "Some ask whether filing a lawsuit after more than 30 years will be meaningful," and emphasized, "As I have stated several times before, if there were any faults, punishment and compensation are naturally required."

Earlier, on the 11th, the Ministry of Land announced that the direct cause of the collapse accident was the loss of adhesion between the concrete under the road section and the tensile reinforcement of the cantilever section. They cited deicing agents and freeze-thaw cycles as the causes.

Mayor Shin said, "The announcement did not mention design and construction issues but only held the local government responsible for management," and added, "However, the risks of bridge aging, deicing agent application, and freeze-thaw cycles are similar nationwide. If all 17 bridges in Bundang built using the cantilever method are currently so dangerous that they require reconstruction, the fundamental causes such as design and construction using the cantilever method must be investigated."

Furthermore, he pointed out, "If there is even a slight risk to citizen safety, the cantilever method should be phased out," and warned, "Bridges constructed using the cantilever method without piers can become prone to concrete corrosion and rebar rusting and detachment over time."

He also stated, "This is a mirror case of the Yatap 10 Bridge accident (constructed by the cantilever method) that occurred five years ago, and it must be clarified why such a vulnerable method was applied only in Bundang New Town (51 sites, accounting for 91% of the first phase new towns)," promising, "Seongnam City will continuously raise these issues in society through this lawsuit process and will consistently propose the elimination of faulty construction methods and institutional improvements to ensure that such accidents never happen again."

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