Gwanggyo Mountain Eco-Passage Project: 'Half-Baked Service'

A feasibility study for an ecological passage on Gwanggyo Mountain, originally planned to be jointly funded by Suwon City and the Korea Expressway Corporation (hereinafter referred to as KEC), is facing difficulties due to lack of cooperation from the KEC.

The Suwon City Council's Gwanggyo Mountain Special Committee has been in negotiations with KEC since 2007 to install an ecological passage to restore the ecological axis of Gwanggyo Mountain in a 120-meter section that was severed by the opening of the Yeongdong Expressway in November 1991.

At a meeting between the Gwanggyo Mountain Special Committee and the KEC Construction Headquarters in July 2008, it was verbally agreed that the city and KEC would jointly conduct a feasibility study to determine whether an ecological passage was necessary in the disconnected section.

In September of the same year, the Suwon City Academic Service Review Committee reviewed the feasibility study for the Gwanggyo Mountain ecological passage and approved it on the condition that the KEC's feasibility study costs be formally stipulated.

However, in February of this year, the KEC expressed reluctance to install the ecological passage due to budget constraints and proposed that it would instead bear the cost of installing hiking trails, effectively reversing the verbal agreement on the joint feasibility study.

In April, the Special Committee again visited KEC headquarters to discuss proceeding with the joint feasibility study, but the meeting concluded without significant results due to the KEC's lack of sincerity.

Accordingly, the city plans to hold an Academic Service Review Committee meeting on the morning of the 26th to conduct a re-review of the feasibility study for the Gwanggyo Mountain ecological passage project, which will require a budget of 50 million won.

The Gwanggyo Mountain Special Committee has raised strong concerns that if Suwon City proceeds with the feasibility study but the KEC does not cooperate in installing the ecological passage, it would merely waste the budget.

Councilmember Lee Jae-won (Songduk-dong, Jowon 1·2-dong) raised a question: "When the results of the feasibility study show it is justified, does the KEC have a legal responsibility to carry out the installation project?"

In response, Shim Kyun-seop, Director of the Environmental Policy Division, stated: "First, we will investigate the current state of environmental destruction caused by the Yeongdong Expressway disruption and present restoration measures and conditions for installing an ecological passage."

Director Shim added: "We will push forward negotiations with the KEC to install an ecological passage during the process of the additional lane construction project on the Yeongdong Expressway between the North Suwon and East Suwon interchanges."