Seoul City refuted a report that the construction and supervision manager for the Great Train Express (GTX)-A Samsung Station project, which is under fire over missing rebar, is the Seoul mayor, saying it is not true.
On the 18th, the city said in a clarification that, according to the Public Procurement Service construction bidding notice, the client agency for the project is specified as the Seoul Metropolitan Government Urban Infrastructure Headquarters, and that the head of the client agency is the head of the Urban Infrastructure Headquarters, so the report claiming that the construction and supervision manager is, on paper, the Seoul mayor is not true.
The city said the Yeongdong-daero complex development project is a basic design technology proposal bid and a project ordered by the Seoul Metropolitan Government Urban Infrastructure Headquarters, and that the actual detailed design and construction are carried out by the builder, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, while quality and construction adequacy supervision is handled by the responsible supervisor, Saman. It added that it expresses regret to the media outlet for inducing a distorted perception among citizens by linking, based solely on the term "client agency" stated in the bidding documents, as if the Seoul mayor were directly the construction and supervision manager.
Earlier, a media outlet reported that Mayor Oh is the construction and supervision manager for the Yeongdong-daero complex development project, which includes the GTX-A Samsung Station section.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said that day it had confirmed a construction error in the GTX-A line's Samsung Station section and launched measures including an emergency on-site inspection. MOLIT said Seoul City recognized the construction error in Nov. last year but did not report it to MOLIT until the end of Apr. this year, sparking controversy over a delayed report. In response, the city said it reported the supervision report, which included the omission of main column rebar, to Korea National Railway three times by official letter in accordance with the procedures of the principal contract consignment agreement (Seoul City–Korea National Railway).