Seoul City Temporarily Halts Demolition at Over 600 Sites... Announces Safety Measures

Emergency On-Site Inspection to Prevent Recurrence of Gwangju Disaster
Legislation Proposed to Mandate Continuous Supervision at Demolition Sites
Strengthened Crackdown on Illegal Subcontracting, Expanded Construction Site Monitoring via CCTV

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has ordered a temporary halt to work at about 600 demolition sites and has taken measures to prevent a recurrence of the ‘Gwangju disaster.’ Along with this, he announced safety measures including mandatory continuous supervision at demolition sites and promised to create a ‘Manual Seoul’ to protect citizen safety.

According to Seoul City on the 15th, following the building collapse accident in Gwangju on the 9th, the city issued a work stoppage order at all demolition sites for emergency on-site inspections. Currently, there are a total of 626 demolition sites in Seoul, consisting of 20 redevelopment sites and 606 general sites. A Seoul city official said, "After on-site inspections confirm safety, the city notified the autonomous district offices, which have the authority to permit, to resume construction." He added, "For sites with safety vulnerabilities, a joint inspection will be conducted this month by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Seoul City, autonomous districts, and the Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation."

The city also announced a ‘Construction Site Safety Management Strengthening Plan.’ At a press briefing held at Seoul City Hall the previous day, Mayor Oh said, "Through the Gwangju demolition site accident, we saw the harsh reality of construction sites where the value of ‘safety’ was violated by ‘illegal’ practices." He added, "Seoul City has prepared strong measures to prevent the repeated loss of precious lives." Since similar accidents occurred earlier in Jamwon-dong, Seocho-gu, and Jangwi 10 District, Seongbuk-gu, the city aims to firmly establish a system to prevent recurrence.

First, the city plans to pursue legal amendments that include provisions for demolition supervisors to conduct continuous supervision and impose strong penalties for violations. Mayor Oh explained, "Since 2017, Seoul has introduced a resident supervision system for buildings requiring demolition permits as its own policy, but due to insufficient legal grounds, there were difficulties in site management." Before the legal amendment, the city also promised to conduct at least three surprise inspections directly at sites with resident supervisors during demolition work.

Additionally, the city plans to strengthen the responsibilities of supervisors in consultation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Mayor Oh emphasized, "Currently, supervisors can only be punished if an accident causes public danger. Going forward, if demolition is carried out differently from the demolition plan, or if safety management measures such as securing traffic safety and safe passage are neglected, supervisors will be directly punishable." In particular, the city plans to designate and manage hazardous sections and risk factors at demolition sites through demolition reviews when granting demolition permits, and make it mandatory to install safety fences in hazardous sections.

Regarding the illegal subcontracting issue identified as a background factor in the Gwangju disaster, the city also plans to establish a system ensuring that all construction processes are carried out according to the plan under the responsibility of the primary contractor. Mayor Oh stated, "Illegal subcontracting at construction sites is a serious factor threatening safety," and added, "We will establish a fair subcontracting order by fully implementing the 100% direct payment system for subcontractors."

Furthermore, the city plans to strengthen monitoring of private construction sites following public ones by building a construction site informatization system that allows all sites to be checked via smartphones through CCTV. This will enable real-time monitoring of construction site conditions such as whether workers are wearing protective gear, entering hazardous areas, and complying with safety rules anytime via smartphones. A Seoul city official explained, "Before announcing the measures, we completed legal reviews confirming that there are no issues under personal information laws if consent for information provision is obtained."