Dokrong, This Year's 'Citizens Contributing to Disaster Prevention' Awards

"Increase 'National Participation in Safety Activities'"

Ham Jin-gyu, President of Korea Expressway Corporation (fourth from the left), took a commemorative photo with the awardees at the '2024 National Participation Safety Activities' awards ceremony held on the 13th at the ex-Smart Center in Siheung-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province. Provided by Korea Expressway Corporation

Korea Expressway Corporation announced on the 16th that it selected and held an awards ceremony for six outstanding participants of the '2024 National Participation Safety Activities' at the ex-Smart Center in Siheung-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province on the 13th.

The National Participation Safety Activities are conducted through residents inspecting and reporting aged highway facilities. This initiative was introduced this year to overcome the limitations of facility management and to prevent major citizen disasters.

The activities were carried out through the 'ex-Citizen Disaster Prevention Team,' which regularly inspects local facilities by selecting residents from Seoul and Gyeonggi regions with the highest ratio of aged facilities, and the 'Citizen Safety Reporting System,' which reports risk factors for facilities nationwide.

The six outstanding participants received a maximum reward of 1 million KRW and a commendation from the President of the Expressway Corporation. Additionally, runners-up were given a separate reward worth approximately 200,000 KRW. The outstanding participants were selected based on their participation in facility-related activities and contributions to disaster prevention, evaluated through reported content and on-site investigations.

Through these activities, 332 reports related to highway facilities were received up to last month. Among these, 106 cases involved potential risk factors in major citizen disaster target facilities such as bridges and tunnels. Based on the reports, the Expressway Corporation also discovered risk factors due to facility defects, such as cracks on bridge piers and damaged guardrails, and took immediate action.

The Expressway Corporation plans to expand the target areas and the scale of rewards for the National Participation Safety Activities starting next year.

Ham Jin-gyu, President of the Expressway Corporation, stated, "As aged highway facilities continue to increase, attention is needed to prevent citizen disasters," and added, "Since citizens' reports can prevent major disasters, we ask for continued participation and interest."