The 10-lane road above Baekun Square in Nam-gu, Gwangju — long notorious for chronic congestion — has been fully reopened to traffic.
The Gwangju Metro Construction Authority said Wednesday that underground structural work for Metro Line 2 at Baekun Square was completed at the end of June, allowing the surface road to reopen fully on Wednesday.
Workers removed temporary steel deck plates, repaved the asphalt and repainted lane markings before restoring normal traffic flow across all 10 lanes.
The square had long served as a gateway to Nam-gu, featuring a multilevel interchange built around an overpass. In 2020, the city demolished the aging structure and launched a major overhaul to flatten the intersection, citing deterioration and its impact on the urban streetscape.
Metro Line 2 construction, which began in 2019, had kept four to five lanes closed in each direction for an extended period.
The area had become synonymous with rush-hour gridlock — residents filed 203 traffic-related complaints about the Baekun Square area since January last year.
While the reopening adds lanes, the existing signal system will remain in place for now until the underpass is completed.
The underpass will carry two lanes in each direction between Nam Gwangju Nonghyup and Juwol Intersection.
The Metro Construction Authority plans to finish installing electrical, communications and fire suppression systems in the underground space and complete the project in October.
sij@heraldcorp.com
