Chungbuk Province announced on the 10th that it carried out an on-site field survey as part of a preliminary feasibility study for widening the Jungpyeong–Hobeop section of the Jungbu Expressway.
A team from the Korea Development Institute, along with officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Expressway Corporation, Chungbuk Province and Gyeonggi Province, attended the survey to review the project's rationale and hear local concerns.
The project is estimated at 1 trillion 4000 hundred million KRW (approximately US$1.05 billion) and would widen the 54.2 km (about 33.7 miles) stretch from Jungpyeong Interchange (IC) to Hobeop Junction (JCT) in Icheon, Gyeonggi, from four lanes to six.
More than 70,000 vehicles travel the corridor daily, and a high share are freight trucks, making it a recurring congestion bottleneck.
Chungbuk Province described the expansion as a critical infrastructure project that will connect Chungbuk with the southern Gyeonggi industrial belt, and said it will coordinate closely with relevant agencies to help the preliminary feasibility study proceed smoothly.
Officials expect to release the survey results by the end of the year.
