YANGJU — Yangju, a city in Gyeonggi Province, is expanding its advanced snow-removal infrastructure to counter black ice, a leading cause of major winter accidents, along with sudden heavy snowfall. The city plans to install smart snow-melting systems on steep pass roads where ice forms repeatedly and snowplows struggle to reach, aiming to secure what it calls the "golden time" for winter traffic safety.
The city said on the 19th that it has introduced a snow-melting system, which uses heating cables embedded in the road, for the first time at key ice-prone sections in the area, and has expanded the installation of automatic brine sprayers in preparation for heavy snow and cold waves this winter.
Until now, steep slopes and pass roads have posed limits on rapid initial snow clearing, because snowplows have difficulty reaching them early during snowfall and the risk of chain-reaction collisions from skidding on icy surfaces is constant.
The city built sensor-based snow-melting systems on two sections totaling 0.5 kilometers: Genemi Pass in Yeongok-ri, Baekseok-eup, about 250 meters long, and Kkachi Pass in Majeon-dong, about 300 meters long. Both are areas where ice forms repeatedly. Sensors automatically detect the condition of the road surface as well as air temperature and humidity, and the system immediately activates the heating cables to melt snow when sudden snowfall or icing occurs.
The city also expanded its automatic brine sprayers, which can be controlled remotely. It added a system on Eoryong Pass in Sinam-ri, Nam-myeon, a stretch of about 1.1 kilometers, raising the number of automatic brine spraying facilities in the city to 15 from 14. During snowfall, officials at the disaster response center check road conditions in real time through on-site closed-circuit cameras and then spray liquid de-icer remotely.
"By introducing the snow-melting system for the first time and expanding the brine sprayers, we have significantly strengthened our initial response capacity before snowplows arrive," a Yangju city official said. "We will operate the advanced snow-removal equipment in a coordinated manner and build a thorough emergency duty system to create road conditions where residents can travel with confidence."