en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Seoul Metropolitan Government has discovered a drop of approximately 9 cm on the road surface of the southern entrance ramp of Seongsu Bridge, and has decided to immediately conduct a precision safety diagnosis and a comprehensive inspection of similar cases across the city.

The drop is located on the ramp section where the Olympic Expressway heading toward Jamsil enters Seongsu Bridge. It is an uphill entrance built with soil and retaining walls, not a suspended road section of the bridge. After receiving a citizen complaint, the Seoul Metropolitan Government recently conducted an on-site inspection and repaired the connection points of the guardrails. The city government stated that the central part of the road used by vehicles has been paved with asphalt, which does not affect driving, and the size of the drop at this structure has not changed over the years.

A Seoul Metropolitan Government official stated that the drop existed immediately after construction was completed and has since been managed through regular inspections conducted twice a year (in the first and second halves) and precision safety inspections every two years. No further road subsidence has been observed since construction, and it is judged that there is currently no safety risk. However, some citizens have cited the past collapse of Seongsu Bridge and the recent collapse of the Seosomun overpass, demanding a thorough investigation into the cause of the drop.

To alleviate public concerns, the Seoul Metropolitan Government decided on the same day to immediately conduct a precision safety diagnosis of the ramp section and comprehensively inspect other bridge sections in the city for similar cases. The official stated that this section has been monitored and managed for over a decade, and there is no concern about collapse risk or structural safety issues, but a safety diagnosis will be conducted immediately, and thorough management will be implemented to prevent similar concerns. The city government preliminarily believes that the problematic drop is likely due to insufficient compaction of the soil inside the retaining wall or inadequate precision during the construction of the retaining wall during the bridge entrance construction.