A spectacular bridge which will serve as an icon of Korean construction at last opened for traffic October 19th at midnight. Completed after four years and four months of construction, the Incheon Bridge is the longest bridge in Korea and the seventh longest in the world. The inauguration of this landmark bridge has opened a new era for the nation’s construction sector. In addition to its enormous size, the Incheon Bridge features state-of-the-art technology, which qualified it to be named one of the world’s ten most amazing constructs. Today we have Mr. Hwang Yun-guk황윤국 of the Korea Institute of Construction Technology to talk in-depth about the Incheon Bridge and its implications for the Korean construction industry. First, he explains the features of the new Incheon Bridge.

Automobile traffic was at last allowed on the bridge, starting at midnight today. The construction of the Incheon Bridge defines an era in Korea’s bridge-building history. The new bridge is a highway bridge stretching for 21.4 kilometers over the West Sea and linking Songdo International City and the Incheon International Airport. The bridge section accounts for 18 kilometers of the six-lane expressway. The entire span of the bridge makes it the seventh longest bridge in the world. The Incheon Bridge is also the world’s fifth longest cable-stayed bridge. The distance between the main pylons measures 800 meters. The bridge’s vertical clearance is high enough to allow 100-thousand-ton ships to pass.

Beginning construction in July 2005, it took 2.4 trillion won, or about 2.1 billion dollars in today’s exchange rate, and two million workers to complete. The Incheon Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge, which consists of only two columns or pylons, with cables holding up the bridge deck. The height of the main tower measures 238.5 meters, almost as tall as the 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul, and the distance between the two main towers is 800 meters. The completion of the bridge which now connects Songdo International City and the Incheon International Airport at Yeongjongdo, has shortened travel time between Seoul and the Airport by some 40 minutes. The Incheon Bridge is expected to vastly improve the traffic and logistics of the southern Seoul metropolitan area, produce more than 3.35 billion dollars in economic benefits, and boost the reputation of Incheon as the new logistics hub of Northeast Asia. However, what’s so impressive about the bridge is not its size, but the technology of its construction.

Since the bridge was built on the sea, the successful completion of the project alone testifies to a level of technological excellence. Despite difficult conditions, the basic construction stage, which usually takes four years, was completed in just six months. In order to shorten the building time, the builders employed the fast track method, in which design and construction are carried out side by side. Making the fast track method possible was the full span launching method or FSLM, in which a segment of bridge deck is produced on land and later put in place. For bridge supports the geo-tube method was used for the first time in Korea, and the steel pillars supporting the main towers were driven 50 meters deep. The bridge is also designed to withstand storms with wind speeds of up to 72 meters per second and magnitude seven earthquakes.

Visitors from home and abroad came in droves to see the magnificent endeavor even before the bridge was officially opened. Anyone who’s been on the longest highway bridge in Korea cannot help but be awed by the grandeur of the structure. The builders of the Incheon Bridge had to overcome several challenges – strong sea wind and waves, blinding fog, and the world’s third largest tidal ebb and flow difference. They also aimed to cut the construction period down as much as possible. The successful completion of the project can be attributed to various cutting-edge construction technologies. Watching the technologies at work, many countries offered to import Korea’s bridge-building know-how even before the bridge was completed. Now the cutting-edge building techniques of Korean builders have become the stuff of legend in the global construction business.

Samsung Engineering and Construction succeeded in vertically pumping concrete up to one kilometer, breaking its own record distance of 600 meters, which had been maintained until this June. In the tunnel category SK Engineering and Construction developed the Supex-cut method, which drastically reduces vibration and dust when blasting rocks, and won an order to build an underwater tunnel in Turkey last year. Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore, currently being built by Ssangyong Engineering and Construction, is noted not for its height, but its concave shape. Building three 57-story buildings of the hotel is cited the most difficult project to carry out in the whole world, because the concaved east building must be linked with the west wing at the 23rd floor. Making one building lean against another at such an angle is highly difficult indeed.

Korea accounted for only 1.9% of the global construction market in 2003. In trying to replace the image of cheap hard-working labor with that of technological savvy, Korean construction companies outdid themselves technology-wise by building the world’s tallest building, connecting tunnel segments 50 meters underwater within the 2-centimeter margin of error, and erecting buildings that are ten times more slanted than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In the first half of this year alone Korean builders won more than 13.1 billion dollars in building contracts, with clients from all over the world. It appears that the Korean construction industry is taking advantage of their high-tech methods to enjoy brisk business in spite of the worldwide recession.

The gap in technology is so narrow that other countries can easily catch up with Korea. So Korea needs to pioneer a new field or new technologies. For instance, green technology is in. Also technologies to secure water or prevent natural disasters are certain to become valuable weapons against climate change. Technologies for building under extreme conditions, such as lunar station construction or building in the polar regions, will also provide options for further growth in the future.

The Korean construction industry was instrumental in powering the nation’s economic growth by fueling the building boom in the Middle East during the 1960s and 70s. Armed with their challenging spirit, steely determination, and cutting-edge technology, Korean construction companies will be able to keep alive their reputation as the world’s foremost builders.