Location map of new roads in the Metropolitan Traffic Improvement Plan for the Happy City. Road No. 1 is the 'Jeongan IC~Naepo New City Connection Road', Road No. 2 is the 'Happy City~Tancheon Connection Road', and Road No. 3 is the 'Happy City~Cheongju International Airport Connection Road'. Provided by the Administrative City Construction Agency.
[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A green light has been given to the construction of new roads connecting Naepo in Chungnam and Sejong City, as well as KTX Gongju Station and Sejong City.
According to Chungnam Province on the 29th, the previous day the Administrative City Construction Agency included the Gongju Tancheon?KTX Gongju Station?Sejong City and Naepo New Town?Jeongan IC connecting road projects in the "Happiness City (Sejong City) Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Plan (3rd revision)."
The Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Plan was first established in 2006 to improve accessibility between Sejong and neighboring cities, and through two revisions, it now includes 18 projects.
Among these, the Tancheon?KTX Gongju Station?Sejong City and Naepo?Jeongan IC connecting roads were selected from 20 projects proposed by Chungnam, Chungbuk, Daejeon, and Sejong after reviewing traffic demand, economic feasibility, and deliberation by the Metropolitan Area Wide Transportation Committee.
The Tancheon?KTX Gongju Station?Sejong City connecting road is a new project to build a total length of 22.1 km with four lanes (two lanes each way), connecting National Road No. 40 at Tancheon, Gongju, to KTX Gongju Station, National Road No. 23, and then to Sejong. A total of 444.6 billion KRW is expected to be invested in this project, of which 333.5 billion KRW will be covered by national funds.
Currently, due to a lack of access road networks, the average daily number of users at KTX Gongju Station was only 685 as of last year.
In response, the province has implemented projects to revitalize KTX Gongju Station, including ▲designation as a secondary logistics hub ▲creation of a cultural tourism platform ▲support for public transportation operation ▲operation of linked tourism products ▲improvement of access roads (local roads 645 and 697), but these efforts have not produced fundamental effects for revitalization.
On the other hand, it is expected that the new metropolitan road will dramatically improve accessibility between Sejong, Gongju, Buyeo, Nonsan, Cheongyang, and other surrounding cities and KTX Gongju Station.
Additionally, the Naepo New Town?Jeongan IC connecting road is a two-lane road connecting Daesul-myeon, Yesan-gun, and Jeongan-myeon, Gongju-si, with a length of 9.9 km. The project cost is a total of 182.2 billion KRW, of which 127.6 billion KRW is expected to be invested from national funds.
This road connects Naepo and Sejong, enhancing mobility between domestic new growth hub areas, and is also expected to contribute to the development of the underdeveloped Daesul-myeon in Yesan-gun, Yugu-eup, and Jeongan-myeon in Gongju-si, which suffer from a lack of transverse transportation networks.
Park Yeon-jin, Director of the Construction and Transportation Bureau of the province, said, "Once the metropolitan connecting roads between Naepo, KTX Gongju Station, and Sejong are opened, accessibility between Chungnam and Sejong will improve, creating a synergy effect for mutual development." He added, "The province will focus administrative efforts to ensure that these two new road projects are selected for preliminary feasibility studies in the second half of this year."
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