Gyeonggi Province inspects Shinan-san Line collapse site ahead of construction restart

Gyeonggi Province officials, along with Gwangmyeong City representatives and field experts, conducted a joint safety inspection at the Shinan-san Line subway tunnel construction site in Gwangmyeong City. The inspection focused on the site in Iljik-dong, where construction is set to resume.

The project's Section 5-2 was halted after a collapse in April of the previous year that caused casualties. The inspection aims to comprehensively assess the safety management situation before construction restarts. Currently, work is underway to restore the earth retention system for the main track installation.

Investigations into the April 11 incident, which involved the collapse of a two-arch tunnel and the road above, revealed that the accident stemmed from systemic failures across the entire process, including design, construction, and construction project management. Contributing factors included inadequate ground surveys, calculation errors in the design phase, structural instability of key components, imbalanced underground excavation, and overall insufficient site safety management.

Following the accident, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, along with the construction companies, have been undertaking redesign and underground safety impact assessment procedures. With the delayed permitting and safety reinforcement processes nearing completion, construction in the affected Gwangmyeong section is expected to resume as early as September. The joint inspection team reviewed the restoration work, the implementation of corrective measures for design and construction issues, and the safety management of the construction site and surrounding structures.