The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 18th that it will begin an investigation into the retaining wall collapse accident that occurred at the Gajang Intersection in Osan, Gyeonggi Province.
The ministry will establish and operate a 'Central Facility Accident Investigation Committee' to clearly determine the cause of the retaining wall accident at Gajang Intersection, which collapsed due to heavy rainfall that fell nationwide the previous day, and to develop measures to prevent similar accidents from occurring.
The committee will consist of up to 12 experts from the 4th Central Facility Accident Investigation Team with expertise in soil, design, construction, and reinforced earth construction methods related to this wall collapse.
The operation period will last about two months, from the 21st to September 20th, and may be extended if necessary.
The ministry will support consultations with relevant agencies, while the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety (KALIS), which operates the committee's secretariat, will handle operations as the secretariat. The committee plans to start its activities in earnest, including on-site investigations, from the 21st.
It will analyze the cause of the accident and prepare measures to prevent recurrence through reviews of related documents such as design documents and hearings with relevant parties.
Earlier, at around 7:04 p.m. on the 16th, a 10-meter-high retaining wall on the overpass highway in Gajang-dong, Osan, collapsed, crushing a vehicle passing beneath it. A male driver in his 40s, identified as A, was rescued five hours after the accident in a state of cardiac arrest. He was transported to a nearby hospital but died.
The section of road was opened as part of the metropolitan transportation network from 2006 to 2011 during the construction of the Segyo 1 District and was constructed using the reinforced earth method, a technique of stacking soil. The reinforced earth method is cost-effective and fast to construct, widely used in small-scale developments until the mid-2000s, but concerns about its vulnerability to external shocks, such as heavy rainfall and ground subsidence, have led to its near abandonment in public facilities since the late 2010s.