GS Engineering & Construction has opened a new highway that connects Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, a satellite city just northwest of Seoul, and Munsan, a town within the border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, the company said Sunday.

A total of 2.1 trillion won ($1.87 billion) was poured into the Seoul-Munsan Expressway, after it broke ground in November 2015. The highway is 35.2 kilometers long, ranging from two to six lanes.

The Seoul-Munsan highway is expected to reduce traffic in the Tongilro and Jayuro highways, two major routes that connect Seoul, Goyang and Paju.

“The Seoul-Munsan highway will be able to absorb 8,000 vehicles from Tongilro and 27,000 vehicles from Jayuro daily. Also, the new highway will cut travel time by 40 minutes and 10 minutes compared to Tongilro and Jayuro, respectively,” a GS E&C official said. 

In the long term, the highway is expected to become a gateway to Kaesong and Pyongyang in North Korea and play a key role in the two Koreas’ possible economic cooperation in the future.

GS E&C was able to complete the construction without any delays with the help of its smart construction technologies. For precise construction, GS E&C utilized a 3D construction method by scanning bridge junctions by laser and drones.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)