Busan City Conducts Safety Inspections Focused on Vulnerable Facilities to Prevent Accidents During Thawing Season

Safety Inspections Conducted at 1,328 Major Vulnerable Facilities from February 15 to April 15

Enhancing Effectiveness of Safety Inspections... Joint Public-Private Efforts Including Relevant Experts

Inspection Meetings by Ministry of the In

Busan City is conducting extensive safety inspections focusing on vulnerable facilities in preparation for safety accidents during the thawing season.

Busan City Hall.

The thawing season from February to April is a period when the frozen ground surface from winter melts due to rising spring temperatures, increasing the risk of safety accidents such as collapses, toppling, and falling rocks.

In the past five years, half (6 out of 12 cases) of the nationwide steep slope damages outside the rainy season (June to September) occurred during the thawing season (February to April).

First, safety inspections for the thawing season will be conducted on 1,328 vulnerable facilities by April 15. Led by the City’s Citizen Safety Office, relevant departments, affiliated public institutions, and district offices have been jointly implementing the inspections since February 15 and will continue until April 15.

The inspections will check for risks of collapse such as subsidence, cracks, and soil erosion, as well as the overall management status of facilities like retaining walls and stone walls.

The 1,328 inspection sites are categorized as follows: ▲787 steep slopes ▲386 landslide-prone areas ▲109 construction sites ▲27 retaining walls ▲11 slopes ▲8 others.

In addition to the inspection targets, separate inspections by managing agencies will be promoted for vulnerable facilities such as two bridges rated D and eleven apartment complexes rated E under the Facility Safety Act.

To enhance the effectiveness of safety inspections, the city and district offices have formed a public-private joint inspection team including experts in civil engineering and architecture. Since February 26, they have been focusing inspections on 155 thawing season vulnerable facilities such as construction sites and retaining walls, and are also conducting joint safety inspections on the remaining steep slopes (787 sites, from February 15 to April 15) and landslide-prone areas (386 sites, from February 19 to April 3) according to individual laws and procedures.

In particular, in March, the city plans to conduct joint sample inspections with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on about 10 selected sites, including the Mandeok?Centum urban expressway construction (deep tunnel) and major redevelopment projects, considering facility scale and risk factors.

Furthermore, to ensure thorough safety management during the thawing season, the city proactively held inspection meetings with related agencies such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and district offices to share management targets and response measures by agency and to pre-check the status of situation management.

Following the thawing season safety measures meeting held on February 15, chaired by the Director of the Disaster and Safety Management Headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety with central government ministries, local governments, and related agencies, the city held its own meetings with district offices to select inspection targets focusing on vulnerable areas and discuss key inspection items, preparing safety inspections in advance.

On February 22, an additional safety inspection meeting with district offices was held to re-examine winter natural disaster response situations and thawing season safety management measures, emphasizing rapid situation management in case of safety accidents.

During this inspection, the city will focus on verifying compliance with major accident safety and health obligations mainly at private business sites and will also provide safety management education and accident response training for facility safety managers.

Moreover, through a steep slope survey, the city plans to newly discover unregistered steep slopes, spread thawing season safety management guidelines, and expand promotional activities such as producing and broadcasting public service advertisements, thereby striving to build a mid- to long-term safety foundation and fundamentally enhance safety management capabilities.

The city will invest a budget of 100 million KRW, including 50 million KRW in national funds, to start a steep slope survey service and plans to newly discover about 200 unregistered steep slopes adjacent to residential areas by October to bring them under regulatory management.

Additionally, the city will actively promote public awareness of thawing season safety management through promotional media such as websites, newsletters, social networking services (SNS), and by linking with Safety Inspection Day (the 4th of every month).

Kim Kyung-deok, Director of the City’s Citizen Safety Office, stated, “Minor issues found during this thawing season safety inspection will be corrected on-site, and if repairs, reinforcements, or detailed safety diagnoses are needed, preventive measures will be taken immediately, followed by necessary administrative procedures in consultation with relevant agencies.” He added, “We also ask citizens to actively report any risk factors they find around facilities during the thawing season through the Safety Report Center and other channels.”

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