A court has ordered the cancellation of Seoul City's one-month business suspension imposed on GS Engineering and Construction over the collapse of an apartment underground parking lot in Incheon's Geomdan New Town, which sparked controversy over missing rebar and a so-called "boneless apartment."
On the 26th, the Administrative Division 6 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Na Jin-yi) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the suit filed by GS Engineering and Construction seeking to nullify Seoul City's business suspension disposition.
Earlier, in April 2023, an accident occurred in which an underground parking lot collapsed at the construction site for the Geomdan New Town AA13-2 block apartment complex. A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport investigation found that rebar necessary to bear the load of the underground parking lot was missing from 19 of 32 columns (60%).
In response, Seoul City imposed an administrative disposition of a one-month business suspension on GS Engineering and Construction, the builder, citing "inadequate safety inspection performance," from Dec. 1 to 31 last year. During the suspension period, signing contracts, bidding, estimating, attending site briefings, and applying for pre-qualification for bidders are all prohibited.
GS Engineering and Construction filed a suit to cancel the suspension and applied for a stay of execution of the disposition. The court granted the stay last year in February and, on this day, also ruled for GS Engineering and Construction in the main suit.
Meanwhile, after the accident, GS Engineering and Construction announced a full rebuild. It has completed demolition work and is proceeding with follow-up processes. Sales for the apartment complex were completed in 2021.