"They say 'They keep tearing up the pavement blocks,' but you won't hear that in Nowon-gu"

Nowon-gu Establishes Sidewalk Maintenance Improvement Plan
Annual Maintenance Plans and Schedules Published on Website

Nowon-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced on the 26th that it has established a ‘Sidewalk Maintenance Improvement Plan’ for the systematic management of aging sidewalks and will also disclose it to residents.

Mayor Oh Seung-rok stated, “Responding in a haphazard manner relying on complaints made it difficult to gain residents’ trust whether sidewalks were maintained or not,” adding, “We will improve a pleasant walking environment that meets residents’ expectations based on accurate on-site inspections and principles.”

This improvement plan mainly includes the selection criteria for maintenance target sites and priorities, the establishment of standards to suppress indiscriminate maintenance of private property, and the disclosure of the maintenance plan through the website.

The district plans to closely identify maintenance targets for C-grade aging roads in collaboration with each neighborhood community center and manage priorities based on five evaluation criteria: aging level, damage level, aging of braille blocks, aging of curbstones, and narrowness.

In this process, if the curbstones are in good condition, only the existing gutters will be repaired to reduce the amount of curbstone waste, and an anti-slip function will be added to the curbstones to save budget while ensuring residents’ walking safety.

When walkways are installed on private property, the necessity will be strictly reviewed to suppress indiscriminate maintenance of private property.

The district plans to revise related administrative regulations during this process and post the sidewalk maintenance plan on the district website next month to disclose it to residents. The website will include the annual sidewalk maintenance plan and information on applying for recycling of waste materials, covering the target sections and schedules of annual sidewalk maintenance work, as well as news related to recycling waste materials generated during construction.

A district official said, “With the establishment of this improvement plan and the disclosure on the website, we expect to dispel misunderstandings about ‘wasteful sidewalk block replacements’ and ‘privileged construction for certain complainants’ and secure residents’ trust in transparent and rational sidewalk maintenance.”

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