Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport should be held liable for damages over what he called a deliberate delay in deciding on safety reviews and reinforcement methods for the Samseong Station section of the Great Train Express (GTX) project. The ministry said a full inspection of the site is needed and that it will reach a conclusion by the end of the year.
Oh made the remarks on the 19th at Seoul City Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, during a parliamentary audit of the city government by the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, responding to questions on GTX Samseong Station safety from Rep. Eom Tae-young of the People Power Party.
Eom said the missing reinforcing bars at GTX Samseong Station were a clear construction failure. "It must be reinforced, but at the same time the problem should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated," he said.
He added that the Seoul city government had repeatedly asked between July and September for a quick decision on a reinforcement method and for trains to pass through the station without stopping, but that the government extended a joint inspection originally due to end July 20 by four months to November. Eom asked a ministry official when the reinforcement method would be finalized. The official said it would be confirmed by December.
"Even if the results of the concrete institute's study come out by the end of December, I do not think any extraordinary measure will emerge beyond the three reinforcement methods already under discussion," Oh said. "Six months are being wasted for nothing." He added that damages would eventually have to be paid to SG Rail and that the ministry, which he said deliberately delayed the decision, should bear that liability.
Oh also rejected a claim by Rep. Cho In-chul of the Democratic Party of Korea, who described the Samseong Station mixed-use development as a project that had gone awry because it was rushed to fit the local election calendar. "It is not true that the GTX-A construction was rushed because of the local elections," Oh said. "If the no-stop passage goes beyond August, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will have to pay damages to SG Rail, the project operator."
"For each day of delay, hundreds of millions of won in compensation is owed," he said. "The stakeholders who want the work carried out quickly are the ministry and the Korea National Railway."