Incheon Expressway '10 Trillion' Market Opens... Assemblyman Heo Jongsik Urges Increased Local Company Participation

7 Projects Including Capital Region 2nd Ring Road Incheon~Ansan, Seochang~Gimpo Expressway
Korea Expressway Corporation, Local Company Participation Rate Only 17% on Average Over 4 Years

As a series of highway construction projects are set to begin in Incheon, it has been identified that the total length is approximately 127 km with a total project cost of around 10 trillion won. Accordingly, there are calls to increase the participation rate of local companies to revitalize the regional economy.

According to the 'Status of Highway Projects in the Incheon Area' data submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Incheon City to Heo Jong-sik, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Incheon Dong-gu·Michuhol-gu Gap), starting with the undergrounding of Incheon-daero next year, the following projects will be successively promoted until 2032: ▲Gyeyang~Ganghwa Highway ▲Second Capital Region Circular Highway Incheon~Ansan ▲Incheon~Seoul Underground Highway ▲Expansion of the Second Gyeongin Line Munhak IC~Seoksu IC.

Including the private investment projects ▲Seochang~Gimpo Highway and ▲Fourth Gyeongin Expressway, the total length of the seven highway projects is 127 km, with a project cost of 9.9001 trillion won.

Seochang~Gimpo Expressway Route Map [Provided by Assemblyman Heo Jong-sik's Office]

Considering that 1.7 trillion won in total project costs, including 470 billion won for the main stadium, were invested to build 16 stadiums for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, this is truly an unprecedented volume of highway construction projects pouring into Incheon. Representative Heo said, "The political circles and Incheon City must establish a cooperative system to create measures that allow local companies to actively participate in highway construction projects."

According to the Korea Expressway Corporation's 'Status of Local Company Participation Rates by Highway Construction Section' data, the rates were 11.39% in 2019, 25.22% in 2020, 10.00% in 2021, and 20.00% last year. The average over the past four years is only 16.68%.

Under the National Contract Act, only local companies can participate in general construction projects under 8.3 billion won and specialized construction projects under 1 billion won. Also, for projects under 24.9 billion won, the local mandatory joint contract system applies, requiring at least 30% participation by local companies.

For construction projects over 30 billion won, the Korea Expressway Corporation has established scoring criteria related to local company participation in the pre-qualification screening (P.Q) and comprehensive evaluation bidding systems. However, since the scores are not high, companies do not feel the need for additional points from local company participation.

Representative Heo emphasized, "The Korea Expressway Corporation's regulations and standards for local company participation are not very effective," adding, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Expressway Corporation must reform the system to encourage collaboration with local companies so that government projects can lead to regional economic revitalization."

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