Ulleung County, Some 'Road Heating Systems' Worth Billions Malfunction... Useless in Heavy Snowfall

It was belatedly revealed that the snow melting system (road heating wires) installed at various points along the Ullung Circular Road in Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province, at a cost of several billion won to prepare for heavy snowfall, did not function properly during the heavy snow on the 18th, causing significant inconvenience for residents and tourists.

Despite the heavy snowfall on the 18th in Ulleungdo, the road heating system did not function properly, causing great inconvenience to residents and tourists. Photo by Maeil Newspaper

According to Ulleung County and others on the 21st, from 2022 to 2024, road heating wires were installed at three locations along the Ullung Circular Road with 3.4 billion won in national funds (local extinction response fund).

In the sections equipped with road heating, the wires are embedded 7 cm below the road surface. When heavy snowfall occurs, temperature and humidity sensors trigger an automatic control system to operate the heating wires.

However, residents and tourists reported that on the 18th, when a heavy snow warning was issued, some sections of the road heating system did not function properly despite the heavy snowfall.

On that day, a heavy snow advisory was issued for the Ulleung area at 3:30 a.m., and it was upgraded to a heavy snow warning at 6:30 a.m. The Ulleung County Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced that it would respond by raising the emergency level from Level 1 to Level 2 and mobilizing available personnel and equipment in response to worsening weather conditions, but it could not avoid criticism.

An official from the Ulleung County Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said, "We apologize for the great inconvenience. We will improve the operating system to prevent this from happening again."

As a result of insufficient administrative monitoring, some roads were paralyzed during the morning commute, and some tourists were unable to board ferries that departed earlier due to worsening weather. Attention is now focused on how Ulleung County will respond to disasters in the future.