On the morning of the 27th, the third day of the Lunar New Year holiday, traffic on the national highways is generally smooth. However, many areas across the country, including the central region, may experience heavy snowfall of 3 to 5 cm per hour until the afternoon, raising concerns about severe congestion.
According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, as of 9 a.m. on this day, the estimated travel times by passenger car departing from the Seoul tollgate to major cities across the country are 6 hours to Busan, 5 hours and 30 minutes to Ulsan, 5 hours to Gwangju, 5 hours to Daegu, 3 hours and 10 minutes to Gangneung, and 2 hours and 40 minutes to Daejeon.
On the Gyeongbu Expressway toward Busan, there is congestion over a 4 km stretch from Cheonan to the Cheonan junction; on the Nonsan-Cheonan Expressway toward Nonsan, congestion spans 8 km from the Pungse tollgate to the Chareng Tunnel; and on the Jungbu Inland Expressway toward Changwon, congestion is present over a 10 km section from the Yeoju junction to the Gampok vicinity.
The expressway corporation predicted that 440,000 vehicles would travel from the 수도권 (seoul metropolitan area) to the provinces, while 390,000 would move from the provinces to the 수도권, estimating a total of 4.84 million vehicles nationwide.
Congestion in the direction of homecoming is expected to begin around 6 to 7 a.m., peak around 4 to 5 p.m., and is likely to ease around 1 to 2 a.m. the following day.
The expressway corporation noted, "Due to the risk of vehicles slipping in heavy snowfall while driving on the expressway, please be especially cautious and reduce speed for safe driving."