Pyeongtaek City "No Issues with National Route 1 Wind Forest Path Project"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] On the 20th, Pyeongtaek City responded to some controversies regarding the 'National Route 1 Wind Forest Path Creation Project' worth approximately 9 billion won being conducted by the Pyeongtaek Green City Project Office.

Some have opposed the decision to restrict bidding participation qualifications to landscape construction businesses, forest business entities (urban forest creation), forestry cooperatives (regional cooperatives) and the National Federation of Forestry Cooperatives, while excluding the landscape planting industry, which accounts for 80% of the project scope.

The city stated that Pyeongtaek's National Route 1 Wind Forest creation project is a comprehensive construction project consisting of multiple construction types including tree planting, landscape facility installation, paving, demolition, traffic safety facilities, and salt spray facilities. The city noted that it correctly falls under landscape construction businesses, which is among the business types performing comprehensive construction in Table 1 (construction industry types and business contents by type) of the Enforcement Decree of Article 7 of the Construction Industry Basic Act. The city explained that landscape planting construction businesses are specialized construction for planting and maintaining landscape trees, grass, and flowering plants, and are not suited to the multiple construction types of this project.

Regarding claims that this contradicts bidding participation qualifications in the Korea Forest Service's practical guidelines, the city countered that the bidding participation qualifications in the urban forest project field practical guidelines announced by the Korea Forest Service to local governments apply to fine dust blocking forest projects, and the urban wind forest path project commissioned this time does not apply.

Responding to the controversy that "15 wind forest path creation projects by other local governments since the enactment of the Urban Forest Act—2 in Seoul, 2 in Busan, 10 in Daejeon, and 1 in Sejong—all included landscape planting construction businesses in their procurement," the city explained that five other cities and districts including Jeonju, Incheon, Seoul, and Busan also commissioned composite process construction projects as landscape construction businesses, which falls under comprehensive construction, the same form as Pyeongtaek's National Route 1 Wind Forest Path creation project.

The city also emphasized that after consulting with the Korea Forest Service, Public Procurement Service, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the response indicated that determining whether to classify a project as comprehensive or specialized construction should appropriately be determined by the contractor comprehensively reviewing the project's characteristics, and thus it was commissioned as landscape construction businesses falling under comprehensive construction.

A city official stated, "The Pyeongtaek Wind Forest Path creation project is an initiative to improve the urban environment of Pyeongtaek, which lacks mountains and trees, and we ask for the understanding and cooperation of related businesses in the city."