Seoul blames railway corporation for delayed rebar report at GTX Samsung Station

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday that it had properly notified the Korea National Railway Corporation of missing rebar at the third construction zone of the GTX-A Samsung Station underground complex development on Yeongdong-daero, following the official reporting procedures set by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The city said the delayed reporting to the ministry was not its fault, but rather the result of the railway corporation failing to pass the information along in a timely manner.

According to a press reference document released by the city, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport established a clear reporting chain for the GTX Samsung Station section in a Jan. 11, 2023, circular sent to Seoul and the railway corporation, titled "Results of the GTX Samsung Station Yeongdong-daero Complex Development Progress Review Meeting."

Under that circular, Seoul was required to submit monthly construction management reports to the railway corporation, which would then share them with the ministry. The city said this created a standing reporting structure in which Seoul submitted reports to the corporation, the corporation reviewed them and forwarded them to the ministry — not a system in which Seoul reported directly to the ministry.

"Accordingly, after receiving notification of the missing rebar from the contractor and the construction supervision team on Nov. 10 last year, the city submitted monthly construction management reports — covering the rebar omissions and column reinforcement plans — to the railway corporation via official correspondence on six separate occasions between Nov. 13 last year and April this year," the city said.

The city added that it had been submitting construction management reports to the railway corporation since February 2023 at the ministry's request. Reports from last November through January included details on the missing rebar, while those covering the following three months addressed reinforcement work and safety measures.

The railway corporation, however, raised no objections after receiving those reports — no requests for supplementary information, no questions about the issues and no requests for additional reporting, the city said.

"The delayed reporting of the rebar construction error to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was not the result of Seoul failing to follow reporting procedures," the city said. "It was the result of the railway corporation's process of reviewing the reports submitted by Seoul and sharing them with the ministry not functioning as it should have."