GS Engineering and Construction and Kumho E&C will face off over a 250 billion won project to modernize Gwacheon's wastewater treatment facility. Gwacheon has begun selecting a builder for a project to build a wastewater treatment facility underground with more than double the capacity of the current plant and to construct amenities such as parks on the ground level for citizens to use. A large-capacity wastewater treatment facility has become necessary as the number of apartment households is expected to increase due to the creation of new towns such as Gwacheon District and Juam District in Gwacheon.
According to the construction industry on Dec. 5, Gwacheon will accept applications through the day for the pre-qualification (PQ) to bid on the "Gwacheon public wastewater treatment facility modernization project." PQ is a system that evaluates a company's construction experience, technical capabilities, and management status in advance when bidding for public works and grants eligibility to participate in the bid.
The project will build a wastewater treatment facility underground at 555-2, Gwacheon-dong, Gwacheon, and create a park and citizen amenities on the ground level. The daily wastewater treatment capacity will increase from the current 30,000 tons to 61,000 tons. Gwacheon decided on the site for the treatment plant in Dec. 2022 and completed the basic planning service for the plant in Mar. 2025. The total planned construction cost is 247.3 billion won.
Construction costs by work type are ▲ industrial and environmental facility construction 176.7 billion won ▲ civil engineering construction 44.6 billion won ▲ electrical construction 21.6 billion won ▲ information and communications construction 500 million won ▲ specialized firefighting facility construction 3.8 billion won.
A construction industry official said, "Among major builders, GS Engineering and Construction and Kumho E&C are each forming a consortium to participate in the bid," and added, "Because this is a project to build a large-scale wastewater treatment facility worth more than 200 billion won, competition among builders participating in the bid will be fierce."
GS Engineering and Construction is one of the builders with Korea's best water treatment technology. GS Engineering and Construction also built the "Daesan coastal industrial area industrial water supply (Daesan coastal seawater desalination) project," ordered by the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water). The project uses seawater off Daesan, South Chungcheong, to build the country's largest seawater desalination facility, producing 100,000 tons per day of high-purity industrial water for supply to the Daesan Industrial Complex. K-water has invested a total project cost of 285.1 billion won since 2020, and the completion ceremony is scheduled for the end of this month.
Kumho E&C is also considered a prestigious name in water treatment. In Jul., it successfully completed the "Yangpyeong-gun local water supply modernization project." The project, which improved the efficiency of tap water supply by refurbishing aging water pipes and introducing a leakage management system, invested a total construction cost of 38.8 billion won. Kumho E&C enabled flow rate analysis through a sewer pipeline monitoring system based on a geographic information system (GIS) and established an integrated management system that can even manage leakage histories. Yangpyeong-gun achieved an annual leakage reduction of about 920,000 tons, resulting in tap water production cost savings of about 1.9 billion won.
Gwacheon will hold an on-site briefing on the 29th for consortia that pass PQ and then proceed with bidding to select a builder next year. Bidding will take place from May 28 to June 1 next year, and the winning builder will be decided in July. A Gwacheon official said, "Builders that pass PQ will be asked to present basic and detailed designs, and the bidding will proceed based on those."
Gwacheon set the construction period at 1,468 days from the groundbreaking date (including eight months of trial operation), targeting a start in 2027 and completion in 2030. However, the city plans to complete the project as early as possible. Mayor Shin Kye-yong said, "It could affect various development projects such as Gwacheon District. We plan to shorten the construction period."
Gwacheon decided to double its wastewater treatment facilities because large-scale apartment complexes, including in the third new town, are planned, and if the number of dwellings increases significantly, the current facilities will not be able to properly treat the wastewater. In Gwacheon, the "Gwacheon District" will be developed between Gwacheon's old downtown and Seoul's Seocho District, with an area of 1,687,000 square meters (about 510,000 pyeong) to create 10,204 households (27,552 people). In addition, the "Juam District" in Gwacheon will be created on a 928,813-square-meter site in parts of Juam-dong and Gwacheon-dong, with 6,158 dwellings as well as office and research and development (R&D) facilities.
A construction industry official said, "A project to build a large wastewater treatment facility capable of handling more than 60,000 tons per day is a construction job that only corporations with verified technological capabilities can undertake, such as by pre-screening eligibility to participate in the bid," adding, "Both GS and Kumho have a variety of construction experience in this field, which is why they have thrown their hats into the ring for this large project."