Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the Bukbu Expressway on the 22nd to inspect the site related to the Gangbuk crosstown underground urban expressway construction project.
At 7:40 a.m. that day, Mayor Oh visited Line No. 6 Dolgoti Station, checked the morning rush-hour congestion on the Bukbu Expressway from the rooftop of a nearby building, then moved under the overpass to inspect safety conditions.
The Seoul city government plans to demolish the elevated road along about 22 kilometers of the Naebu Expressway and the Bukbu Expressway between Seongsan IC and SInnae IC, and build a six-lane, bidirectional Gangbuk crosstown underground urban expressway. The goal is to break ground in 2030 and complete it in 2037.
Mayor Oh said, "The elevated sections of the Naebu Expressway and the Bukbu Expressway were once the key east-west traffic axis in the Gangbuk area, carrying about 90,000 to 130,000 vehicles per day on average, but now the average speed is only 35 kilometers per hour, so they have effectively lost the function of an urban expressway."
He added, "Because the elevated roadway cuts through residential areas, it has hindered regional development and worsened the living environment, and issues of maintenance and safety due to aging continue to arise, so pushing the project forward is urgent."
Mayor Oh said, "The Gangbuk crosstown underground expressway will simultaneously resolve chronic traffic congestion, improve the urban landscape, and ensure citizen safety, while also making a major contribution to meeting the traffic demand of more than 40,000 additional households to be supplied in Gangbuk in the future, thereby transforming the daily lives of Gangbuk residents and becoming the decisive project that accelerates the 'Gangbuk's heyday, again.'"
With the new Gangbuk crosstown underground urban expressway, the average speed during rush hour is expected to secure 67 kilometers per hour, shortening the travel time between Seongsan and Sinnnae from the current 38 minutes to 18 minutes, a reduction of about 20 minutes.