When an underpass is closed due to torrential downpours during the monsoon season, the closure information will be reflected in navigation in real time to guide drivers to a detour route.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety held a policy briefing at the Government Complex Sejong on the morning of the 29th and unveiled disaster-safety policies, including the "underpass closure information guidance service," "National Safety 24," and the "mobile disaster management information system."
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) developed the "underpass closure information guidance service" to prevent accidents caused by drivers failing to recognize flooded roads in advance. After the Osong underpass disaster in 2023, the number of closure facilities rose sharply from 244 to 659 as of 2025, but critics noted that it is difficult for drivers to know whether an underpass is controlled before entering.
Underpass closure information is received on the MOIS disaster-safety data sharing platform when local governments transmit in real time the activation status of flood underpass barriers. The information is then relayed to in-vehicle navigation through the Korean National Police Agency and the Korea Road Traffic Authority (KOROAD) traffic information system (UTIC, incident information system).
Lee Il-ryeong, a disaster-safety data division head at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), said, "It takes about two minutes from the activation of the barrier until it is reflected in navigation, and up to about five minutes depending on system differences among navigation providers," adding, "Once the information is reflected, the route is recalculated to guide a detour route."
The service will be piloted from May for 83 underpasses in Seoul and Daejeon.
An official at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) said, "After supplementing issues through the pilot, we plan to expand it nationwide by 2028," and added, "We are also reviewing ways to broaden the scope beyond flooding to other disaster types such as fires."