On the afternoon of the 18th, the last day of the Lunar New Year holiday, congestion persisted in several sections of expressways heading toward Seoul.
According to the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), as of 5 p.m. the maximum estimated travel times from each city tollgate to the Seoul tollgate were 5 hours from Busan, 4 hours 40 minutes from Ulsan, 4 hours from Daegu, 3 hours 40 minutes from Gwangju, 2 hours 40 minutes from Gangneung, and 2 hours 20 minutes from Daejeon.
In the opposite direction, from Seoul to each city, it was 4 hours 30 minutes to Busan, 4 hours 10 minutes to Ulsan, 3 hours 30 minutes to Daegu, 3 hours 20 minutes to Gwangju, 2 hours 40 minutes to Gangneung, and 1 hour 40 minutes to Daejeon.
On the Gyeongbu Expressway toward Seoul, traffic began to build around 4:38 p.m., causing congestion over a 4-kilometer section from near Ipjang Geobong Grape Service Area to near Anseong.
On the Seohaean Expressway toward Seoul, vehicles were repeatedly stopping and going over a 3-kilometer section from near Julpo to near Buan.
On the Jungbu Naeryuk Expressway toward Yangpyeong, traffic was moving slowly over a 3-kilometer section from near Changnyeong to near the Hyeonpung Junction; around the 2-kilometer section from near Mungyeong 2 Tunnel to Mungyeong Saejae Tunnel; and over a 5-kilometer section from Mungyeong Service Area to near Jinnam Tunnel.
In addition, on some sections of homebound expressways, vehicles were moving slowly (40–80 kph), but overall traffic was still flowing smoothly. Homebound in the opposite direction, most vehicles were moving without major delays.
The corporation expected congestion on the homebound routes to ease around 11 p.m. to midnight. The outbound routes were generally smooth.
The corporation estimated nationwide traffic volume for the day at 4.85 million vehicles, down by more than 1 million from the previous day (6.15 million), which was Lunar New Year's Day. Of these, about 350,000 were expected to move from the Seoul metropolitan area to provincial regions, and 490,000 from provincial regions to the Seoul metropolitan area.