서해대교는 무너지고 있다

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Seohae Bridge. Connecting Dangjin and Pyeongtaek, it got a lot of hype for being the first highway stretch to cross the sea. It opened in 2000 and is about 7km long. When they built it, they set the expected lifespan at 100 years, but...

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A shocking report came out from YTN in 2014. Seohae Bridge is corroding, and the Korea Expressway Corporation had known about this since 2005.

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Out of the 36 main pillars in the sea section, 32 have started corroding, and 4 have entered the 'acceleration phase.' If it hits the 'limit phase,' repairs are impossible. You have to tear it down and rebuild. What was the Korea Expressway Corp's response? 'It's fine to use for now, but the remaining lifespan is about 30 years.' They didn't say a word about hiding the corrosion for 10 years. But why did it corrode? Because of the sea? Well, obviously, but also...

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Because they used less concrete than the design called for. For the record, Seohae Bridge had accidents even before completion due to poor construction. And as some of you might know, in 2015, a fire of unknown origin broke out on the cables, and the whole bridge was shut down. If it followed the design, it should've held up, but the cables couldn't take it, leading to more suspicions of shoddy work... The Expressway Corp eventually couldn't hold out and planned a full-scale repair. Since there's a 50-year quality guarantee, they plan to split the costs with the original contractors and carry out repairs until 2030.

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The Iksan-Pyeongtaek Expressway opened late last year as a detour, but thanks to the Lewis-Mogridge Proposition, it's getting slammed with traffic just like the Seohaean Expressway. I just hope the repairs are done perfectly so there aren't any accidents. By the way, the original contractors for Seohae Bridge are Daelim and GS.