Hanam mayor urges metropolitan transport authority to address city's growing traffic woes

Hanam Mayor Lee Hyeon-jae met Thursday with Kim Yong-seok, chairman of the Metropolitan Area Transportation Commission, during Kim's visit to Hanam to inspect transportation improvement measures for the Gyosan new town. Lee raised a series of metropolitan transport issues tied to development in the Wirye and Gyosan new towns and the newly designated Misa K-Culture and Gamil 2 housing sites.

Wirye-Sinsa Line extension to Hanam

Hanam called for the extension of the Wirye-Sinsa Line to Hanam to be included in the fifth Metropolitan Area Transportation Implementation Plan, due to be announced in November.

The city stressed that residents in Hanam's section of the Wirye new town had contributed 125.6 billion won ($93.6 million), or 23 percent, of the railway cost-sharing fund under the Wirye metropolitan transport improvement plan, yet remain excluded from both the Wirye-Sinsa Line and the Wirye Tram and fall outside the rail service catchment area — leaving them at a transport disadvantage within the same new town. The city also noted that the government's Oct. 29 announcement of the Gamil 2 housing site, with 6,500 units, would further increase demand for the Wirye-Sinsa Line extension from Wirye to Gamil, and strongly called for the route to be incorporated into the fifth plan.

Hanam IC upgrade to be included in Gyosan transport plan revision

Hanam also asked that an upgrade of the Hanam interchange be included in the planned revision of the Gyosan new town metropolitan transport improvement plan, set to be updated in November. The Hanam interchange was built in 2001, when the city's population stood at around 120,000, and is an incomplete interchange with restricted entry and exit in certain directions. Traffic congestion has worsened as new town development has increased vehicle volumes, while the interchange's structure has remained unchanged. The city warned that conditions would deteriorate further once 10 public housing complexes with 7,356 units are built on the northern side of the Gyosan new town.

Hanam noted that it had held multiple consultations with the Korea Land and Housing Corporation on revising the metropolitan transport plan after the Gyosan new town's planned population rose 21.8 percent, from 80,000 to 97,000, but that the request to upgrade the Hanam interchange has stalled. The city put forward three alternatives — adding on-ramp and off-ramp lanes at the Hanam interchange, installing a Hi-pass interchange at the Hanam Dream rest area, and building a new interchange near the Gwangam Tunnel to serve the Gyosan new town — and requested the formation of a four-way consultative body involving the Metropolitan Area Transportation Commission, the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, the Korea Expressway Corporation and Hanam.

Proactive transport planning for new housing sites Hanam Misa K-Culture and Hanam Gamil 2

The city also called for metropolitan transport measures for the Hanam Misa K-Culture and Hanam Gamil 2 sites, which the government announced Oct. 29. With 12,000 and 6,500 units planned respectively, the city said the two districts could compound congestion when combined with traffic demand from existing new towns.

Misa Island, where the Misa K-Culture district is to be built, is connected to the outside only by Misadong-ro, a four-lane road. The city said that adding residential and K-Culture mixed-use development there could severely worsen congestion at the Seondong interchange and Olympic Boulevard, and requested an additional station on the Songpa-Hanam Line (Line 3) extended to the area, along with a trunk road network linking Misa Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard via an underground section.

The Seohanam interchange near the Gamil 2 site is also an incomplete interchange built in 2001. About 35,000 residents have moved into the Gamil new town, but vehicles entering and exiting merge over a short stretch, and the proximity of the exit to a signalized intersection causes heavy congestion. According to Hanam, some sections inside the interchange already exceed their capacity of 3,000 vehicles per hour.

Bus routes toward Seoul are also insufficient, but adding services is constrained by difficulties in securing depot space and reaching agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The city said that adding 6,500 units at the Gamil 2 site would worsen commuting conditions for existing residents, and proposed a full structural overhaul of the Seohanam interchange, additional stations on the Songpa-Hanam Line, and the Wirye-Sinsa Line extension from Wirye to Gamil as solutions.

Comprehensive review of metropolitan transport across Hanam

Finally, Mayor Lee said Hanam had actively cooperated with the central government's development of the Misa, Wirye, Gamil and Gyosan new towns to ease Seoul's housing supply shortage, but that separate transport plans for each district had left the city spatially fragmented and residents facing transport inconvenience. He asked that when transport improvement plans are drawn up for the Hanam Misa K-Culture and Hanam Gamil 2 sites, the commission take a city-wide approach covering existing new towns and the original urban center, noting that the spatial scope of metropolitan transport improvement plans extends to 20 kilometers.

Kim said he was well aware of the importance of metropolitan transport planning given Hanam's new town development, and pledged to carefully review the transport issues the city had raised.