Seoul City Projects

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Large-scale social overhead capital projects carried out by the Seoul City government have been found to have hit numerous snags, significantly exceeding their budgets. Here’s more.

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Construction of the six-lane World Cup Bridge is estimated to cost 318 million U.S. dollars. The bridge was slated to open in August of last year, but so far it's only 30 percent complete. Completion of construction of the Gangnam Beltway, which has cost more than 900 million dollars, has been extended four times so far. The beltway is 87 percent complete and is slated for completion next year, but the project is already more than 180 million dollars over budget. Fifteen of the social overhead capital projects carried out by the Seoul City government are behind schedule. 670 million dollars have collectively been spent beyond the initial budget. The Seoul City Government says the projects were delayed due to discussions of residents' complaints and compensation issues with relevant organizations.

[Soundbite] Ha Jong-hyun(Seoul Metropolitan Gov't) : "The SOC projects were delayed because of unscheduled negotiations of compensation and processing of residents' complaints."

Experts point to the need to prepare more thoroughly for SOC projects, which not only cost hundreds of millions of dollars in public taxes but also elicit complaints from residents in the affected areas.