Strengthening Seismic Performance of National Infrastructure and Schools Nationwide Including Railways, Power, and Ports

Ministry of the Interior and Safety to Implement Three-Stage Seismic Reinforcement Basic Plan Starting Next Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will complete seismic reinforcement of major national infrastructure such as railroads, power, and ports by 2025. Seismic performance of school facilities nationwide will also be gradually improved by 2029.

On the 27th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it has established the "3rd Phase (2021?2025) Basic Plan for Seismic Reinforcement of Existing Public Facilities."

To enhance the seismic performance of public facilities, the Ministry establishes a basic plan every five years, and central government ministries, local governments, and public institutions formulate and implement annual seismic reinforcement measures based on this basic plan.

As a result of implementing the previous "2nd Phase (2016?2020) Basic Plan for Seismic Reinforcement," the current seismic rate of public facilities has reached 69.6% (provisional), exceeding the initial plan (49.3%) by 20.3 percentage points.

Through this 3rd phase basic plan, the Ministry aims to raise the seismic rate of public facilities to 80.8% by 2025, an increase of 11.2 percentage points, by investing a total of 3.5543 trillion KRW over the next five years. By 2035, the goal is to achieve 100% seismic performance for a total of 192,659 existing public facilities.

In particular, among the 58,537 facilities that have not yet secured seismic performance, 21,574 will be reinforced under the 3rd phase basic plan. Seismic reinforcement of major national infrastructure such as railroads, power, and ports will also be completed within the 3rd phase period. Power facilities and thermal pipelines will be completed by 2022, general and high-speed railroads and petroleum facilities by 2023, agricultural production infrastructure (reservoirs over 300,000 tons) by 2024, and urban railroads and port facilities by 2025.

Seismic performance will also be intensively secured for school facilities. Together with the Ministry of Education, construction will be completed by 2022 for kindergartens, elementary, and secondary schools in Gyeongju and Pohang, which experienced earthquake damage; by 2024 for schools in the Yeongnam region and special schools; and by 2029 for schools nationwide.

Additionally, seismic performance will be secured by 2024 for public facilities located in earthquake-prone areas such as Gyeongju and Pohang.

Han Sung-won, Disaster Management Policy Officer at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "Securing seismic performance of facilities is necessary to minimize social confusion and enable rapid disaster response and recovery in the event of an earthquake." He added, "We will systematically implement the 3rd phase basic plan through close cooperation with related ministries and local governments."