Seoul City, Ministry of Land, and Gangdong-gu Form 'Sinkhole Investigation Committee'

Seoul City announced on the 26th that it will form a joint investigation committee with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Central Underground Accident Investigation Committee to determine the cause of the large sinkhole that occurred in Myeongil-dong, Gangdong-gu.

On the 24th, a large sinkhole spanning four lanes occurred at an intersection near Daemyeong Elementary School in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. On the 25th, the area around the accident site is being cordoned off. One passenger car and one motorcycle fell into the sinkhole, and one occupant of the passenger car was transported to a nearby hospital. Currently, one motorcycle rider is buried under the sinkhole. The depth is estimated to be 30 meters. 2025. 03. 25 Photo by Yoon Dong-ju

The investigation committee will be composed of external experts in accordance with the Special Act on Underground Safety Management. The city plans to secure and provide as much accident-related video and measurement data as possible to the committee. To alleviate public anxiety, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys will be intensified, focusing on high-risk areas prone to sinkholes.

Considering that the accident site is near a subway construction site, a full investigation will be conducted on 42 km of urban railway construction sections and 20 km of surrounding roads and sidewalks. In the future, GPR surveys will also be strengthened on roads around approximately 300 construction sites where excavation work deeper than 10 meters underground is underway.

The target areas around urban railway construction sites total three locations: ▲ Seoul Metro Line 9 Phase 4 construction (Sections 1 to 3) covering 24 km, ▲ Dongbuk Line urban railway private investment project construction (Sections 1 to 4) covering 13 km, and ▲ Wirye Line urban railway construction project covering a 5 km section.

The city will also review underground facilities including water and sewage systems, subway Line 9 construction, soil characteristics, and the Seoul-Sejong Expressway tunnel section, which have been mentioned as possible causes of the accident.

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