Refer Report

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will begin managing donation facilities from the design and construction stages. As donation facilities that must be managed by the public after completion are built as three-dimensional structures or landmark buildings, the need to manage construction quality is increasing.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 9th that it has established a plan to ensure the construction quality of donation facilities. The purpose is to prevent conflicts caused by design and construction quality, safety management, and defects. The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained, “In the past, donation facilities were installed mainly as single facilities such as roads, parks, and simple buildings, but recently, they are being built in three dimensions and complexes for efficient use of land,” and “This is a measure to conduct a legal technical review of the technical review and appropriateness of construction execution, and safety.”

We will improve the ‘Donation Acceptance Demand and Integrated Management System’ that currently manages building and cash donations. We plan to include the current status and list of all donation acceptance facilities, including roads and parks that are becoming three-dimensional, complex, and diverse.

Facilities with a total construction cost of 5 billion won or more are required to be managed in a design and construction manner similar to public facilities. In particular, bridges or covered structures costing 5 billion won or more are managed from the planning stage through a preliminary technical review (advice from the Construction Technology Deliberation Committee) prior to facility decision.

Construction projects costing more than 10 billion won or multi-use facilities such as bridges and covered structures costing more than 5 billion won must mandatorily undergo construction technology deliberation procedures such as design VE and design deliberation. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided to sufficiently consult with project proponents such as associations from the early stages of development projects on the implementation of construction technology deliberation procedures and the reflection of deliberation results. It plans to ensure implementation by specifying this in the project decision notice, etc.

Bridges and covered structures that require creative design will be subject to design competitions. In order to ensure technical safety, the technical committee will seek advice from the Construction Technology Deliberation Committee during the competition process and reflect expert opinions.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Technical Review Officer will also conduct on-site inspections. In order to strengthen the responsibility of construction companies and service providers, we plan to request the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to improve the system so that ‘construction engineering and construction evaluation’ can be conducted for private donation facility construction.

In order to avoid delays in development, we will consider linking design VE and deliberation through advance confirmation of deliberation content, etc. Construction technology deliberation will be conducted first before other projects that have applied for deliberation during the same period.

Lim Chun-geun, the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s director of construction technology policy, said, “We will not only improve the construction quality of donated facilities, but also prevent conflicts arising from defects during takeover and handover in advance.” He added, “We will actively manage the quality of all public and private construction projects, as well as discover and implement leading construction technology policies.”

Reporter Jinwoo Park jwp@hankyung.com

Source: Korean