On Feb. 14, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, heavy fog combined with fine dust is causing congestion in many sections of major expressways nationwide as people head to their hometowns.
According to Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), as of 8 a.m. that day, the estimated travel time by passenger car from the Seoul Tollgate was tallied at 6 hours 50 minutes to Busan, 6 hours 30 minutes to Ulsan, 5 hours 50 minutes to Daegu, 4 hours 20 minutes to Gwangju, 3 hours to Daejeon, and 2 hours 50 minutes to Gangneung.
In the opposite direction, to Seoul from each region, travel times are expected to be 4 hours 30 minutes from Busan, 4 hours 10 minutes from Ulsan, 3 hours 30 minutes from Daegu, 3 hours 20 minutes from Gwangju, 1 hour 30 minutes from Daejeon, and 2 hours 40 minutes from Gangneung.
By major route, on the Gyeongbu Expressway toward Busan, traffic is slow for 19 km from Anseong to Cheonan, 10 km from the Cheonan Junction to the Cheonan Hodu Service Area, and 12 km from the Oksan Service Area to the Cheongju Junction.
On the Jungbu Expressway toward Nami, congestion continues for 8 km from the Hobup Junction to the Namicheon Interchange, 5 km around the Daeso Junction to Jincheon area, 4 km near the Jincheon Tunnel, and 6 km from Seocheongju to the Nami Junction.
On the Seohaean Expressway toward Mokpo, traffic is also sluggish in several sections, including near the Ansan Junction, from the Paltan Junction to the Hwaseong Service Area, and around Seopyeongtaek. On the Nonsan–Cheonan Expressway toward Nonsan, turtle-like traffic is appearing over more than 20 km from the Charyeong Tunnel to the area around the Gongju Interchange.
The expressway corporation forecast that congestion in the homebound direction would begin between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., peak between 11 a.m. and noon, and gradually ease around 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. In contrast, it projected relatively smooth flow in the return-to-Seoul direction.
Nationwide traffic volume for the day was estimated at about 4.85 million vehicles, with 460,000 moving from the Seoul metropolitan area to the provinces and 370,000 heading from the provinces to the metropolitan area.