Daejeon City Accelerates Tram Construction... Focus on Citizen-Friendly and Public Interests

by Jeong Ilwoong

Published 13 Apr.2022 14:10(KST)

Perspective rendering of Daejeon Urban Railway Line 2 tram construction. Provided by Daejeon City.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is accelerating the construction of the Urban Railway Line 2 tram. In the big picture, the city aims to complete the administrative procedures necessary for tram construction by the end of this year, start construction in the first half of next year, and open the line in 2027.

In particular, the city plans to place greater emphasis on citizen-friendly spaces and securing public interest in the tram construction.

On the 13th, the city announced that it will secure additional public interest by installing citizen-friendly facilities and a plaza at the Yeonchuk Vehicle Depot, which will perform comprehensive command functions such as maintenance, repair, and control of tram vehicles, and by arranging a transfer parking lot.

First, the city plans to build a tram vehicle depot on a 38,993㎡ site in Yeonchuk-dong, Daedeok-gu, with a total project cost of 47.3 billion KRW.

During the design competition at the end of last year, the tram vehicle depot included a promotional center and tour spaces, expanding open spaces with a railway concept and living SOC to enhance citizen use.

Based on this, the city's Tram Metropolitan Headquarters aims to complete the basic and detailed designs by the end of this year by proceeding with administrative procedures such as changing and approving the Greenbelt (GB) management plan with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport under the goal of ‘constructing an open tram depot with citizens.’

The city also focuses on introducing the optimal operation method suitable for site conditions. It plans to analyze and reflect the research results on ‘tram operation and road impact’ conducted by the Korea Railroad Research Institute, KAIST, and Daejeon Transportation Corporation in the design.

Through this, the main traffic measures and operation plans to be reflected in the basic tram design will focus on minimizing congestion in the existing traffic system and tram operation process.

The city plans to first alleviate intersection congestion according to the location and type of tram stations and install stations at certain distances between intersections considering bus transfer conditions.

Also, in preparation for future operation of mixed lanes for trams and city buses, stations will be installed mainly in a ‘side platform’ style, which allows easy boarding and alighting on both sides of the road.

In particular, to prevent bottlenecks caused by the tram on the road, the ‘lane balance principle’ will be applied, maintaining the same number of straight lanes for general vehicles when passing intersections, and priority will be given to pedestrians, trams, and automobiles in that order for tram and traffic signals.

Mayor Heo Tae-jeong of Daejeon said, “We will do our best to ensure that the Daejeon tram contributes not only to revitalizing the old downtown and balanced urban development but also becomes a core infrastructure to realize the Chungcheong region mega-city Daejeon together with the metropolitan railway (Gyeryong~Sintanjin 35.4 km).”

Meanwhile, the Daejeon tram is an SOC project with a total project cost of 764.3 billion KRW (60% national funding), constructing 45 stations, the Yeonchuk-dong vehicle depot, and a 37.8 km extension.