Osan retaining wall crumbles

[Anchor]

The police, who are investigating the incident where a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed, resulting in one death, conducted a search and seizure today (July 22) at Osan City in Gyeonggi Province and the construction company.

It is noteworthy that the opposite retaining wall had collapsed seven years ago, and there had been reports indicating that the wall needed to be rebuilt at that time.

Reporter Hwang Da-ye has the story.

[Report]

The retaining wall next to the overpass collapses, crushing vehicles.

It has been confirmed that a complaint was received shortly before the accident, stating that "there are concerns about collapse if it rains," raising issues of poor management.

Six days after the accident, the police began their search and seizure.

The three entities involved are Osan City Hall, the construction company Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and the supervising agency, the Korea AUthority of Land and Infrastructure Safety.

In particular, the police have also obtained chat records from a group chat involving Osan City, police, and fire officials just before the accident.

According to KBS's investigation, the police are looking into not only the collapsed retaining wall but also the opposite wall.

The opposite retaining wall had previously collapsed seven years ago, and both walls were constructed using the so-called "reinforced earth" method.

This is the retaining wall that collapsed in 2018.

It can be seen that it was newly built using a different construction method than the section that collapsed this time.

This is the detailed safety inspection report conducted after the previous accident.

It concluded that the entire remaining section should be demolished and reconstructed using a new method.

Concerns about the collapse of the retaining wall constructed with this method had already been raised since seven years ago.

[Lee Seok-jong/Civil Structural Engineer: "The opposite retaining wall was likely constructed using a similar method around the same time, so it would have been better if more detailed safety inspections and measures had been taken regarding that as well."]

The retaining wall that collapsed this time had also been pointed out for issues such as leaks in five inspections since 2023, but no reconstruction was carried out.

This is KBS News, Hwang Da-ye.