Korea Forest Service "Preventing Forest Road Collapse... Mandatory Retaining Walls, Stone Walls, and Sabangdam"

The Korea Forest Service will mandate the installation of damage prevention facilities such as retaining walls and stone embankments under forest roads, as well as the construction of check dams. This is a preventive measure to avoid additional damage caused by the collapse of forest roads due to increasingly frequent extreme heavy rains and landslides. The obligation to install retaining walls and similar structures applies to both existing forest roads and those newly constructed in the future.

A view of the forest road created in Jangseong Healing Forest. Provided by the Korea Forest Service

The Korea Forest Service announced that the revised "Regulations on the Installation and Management of Forest Roads" containing these provisions will be enforced starting from the 11th.

According to the revised regulations, for routes where new forest roads are planned to be constructed after this date, if there are protective facilities such as residential houses below the forest road, damage prevention facilities like retaining walls and stone embankments must be included in the design. The construction of new forest roads must be linked with landslide prevention projects such as check dams.

The same applies to existing forest roads. The Korea Forest Service emphasized that even for already constructed forest roads, if there are protective facilities such as residential houses below or if the risk of landslides is high, it is mandatory to additionally construct retaining walls, stone embankments, and implement landslide prevention projects such as check dams.

Nam Sung-hyun, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, stated, "The core of the revised regulations is to create and manage strong forest roads that will not collapse even under extreme heavy rains, and to install landslide prevention facilities such as check dams to prevent damage to the lives and property of the public during disaster situations."