On the afternoon of the 15th, the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday, traffic jams continued in many sections of expressways nationwide as homebound vehicles crowded the roads.
According to the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), as of 5 p.m. the expected travel times from the Seoul Tollgate to major cities were ▲ Busan 4 hours 50 minutes ▲ Ulsan 4 hours 30 minutes ▲ Mokpo 4 hours ▲ Daegu 3 hours 50 minutes ▲ Gwangju 3 hours 30 minutes ▲ Gangneung 2 hours 50 minutes ▲ Daejeon 1 hour 50 minutes.
In the opposite direction, from each city to Seoul, the expected times were ▲ Busan 4 hours 30 minutes ▲ Ulsan 4 hours 10 minutes ▲ Mokpo 3 hours 50 minutes ▲ Daegu 3 hours 30 minutes ▲ Gwangju 3 hours 20 minutes ▲ Gangneung 2 hours 50 minutes ▲ Daejeon 1 hour 30 minutes.
Compared with the morning, the expected travel times shortened by about one hour, but some sections were still congested.
On the Gyeongbu Expressway toward Busan, congestion was reported at ▲ near Jukjeon–Suwon for 6 km ▲ near Namsajinwi–Namsa for 3 km ▲ Bukcheonan–near Cheonan for 9 km ▲ near the Onsan junction–Nami junction for 14 km.
On the Jungbu Naeryuk Expressway toward Changwon, traffic flow was slow due to increased vehicles on ▲ Yeoju junction–near Gamgok for 10 km ▲ Mungyeongsaejae Tunnel–near Mungyeong 2 Tunnel for 6 km ▲ near Sinsan–near Gimcheon junction for 2 km.
The corporation predicted that homebound congestion would be the heaviest on this day during the holiday period. It said congestion both outbound and inbound would clear around 8–9 p.m.
About 5 million vehicles were expected to be on the move nationwide on this day. An estimated 450,000 vehicles would travel from the Seoul metropolitan area to the provinces, and 380,000 from the provinces to the metropolitan area.