Land Ministry to expand 'top construction engineer' certification to roads and transport

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is moving to identify and develop outstanding construction project management engineers — commonly known as supervisors — to take responsibility for safety and quality at construction sites.

The ministry finalized its "2026 Outstanding Construction Engineer Selection Plan" and announced Wednesday that it will begin accepting applications July 20.

The national supervisor certification regime evaluates candidates comprehensively on their actual on-site management ability, expertise and ethics, rather than ranking them by academic credentials, qualifications and career history alone. The system was introduced to strengthen the professionalism and accountability of supervisors following the collapse of an underground parking garage at an apartment complex in Incheon's Geomdan district in 2023. Last year, the ministry selected 75 outstanding engineers in the architectural facilities field for the first time.

This year, the program expands significantly to include roads and transport facilities — core national infrastructure that directly affects daily life. The ministry plans to select up to 200 outstanding construction engineers across both fields combined and assign them to manage safety at major public construction sites. The government intends to extend the program in stages to cover water resources and complex development, in line with construction engineering classification standards.

Engineers who make the final cut will receive a certificate of selection — valid for three years and issued in the name of the minister of land, infrastructure and transport — along with tangible incentives. Those selected last year will receive bonus points when participating in Korea Land and Housing Corp. public housing construction project management services this year. Engineers selected this year will similarly receive bonus points during the project performance capability evaluation for public construction project management services to be tendered in 2027.

Eligible applicants this year are engineers — limited to those in responsible or field-specific roles — who scored 90 points or higher on the comprehensive evaluation for construction project management services in the architectural facilities and roads and transport facilities fields conducted between 2024 and this year. Eligibility can be confirmed in real time on the Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation website.

Online document submissions will be accepted for four weeks, from July 20 to Aug. 14. After a document review, interviews will be held in October, with final selection results announced in November. An information session on the detailed plan will be held July 8 at the HIT conference hall on Hanyang University's Seoul campus.

Kim Myeong-jun, the ministry's director general for technology and safety policy, said the national certification regime is "a system designed to create an environment where skilled engineers with field experience and expertise are fairly evaluated and given the recognition they deserve." He added that the ministry would "continue to develop the system so that verified construction project management engineers can be placed at major construction sites."