Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo meets with Lee Yun-sang, chief of the Gadeokdo New Airport Construction Authority, at the city hall protocol room Friday morning to discuss key issues for the successful advancement of the new airport project. [Busan City]
Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo meets with Lee Yun-sang, chief of the Gadeokdo New Airport Construction Authority, at the city hall protocol room Friday morning to discuss key issues for the successful advancement of the new airport project. [Busan City]

Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo met Friday morning with Lee Yun-sang, chief of the Gadeokdo New Airport Construction Authority, at the city hall protocol room to discuss key issues for the successful advancement of the Gadeokdo New Airport construction project.

Jeon and Lee agreed that the Gadeokdo New Airport is critical infrastructure for positioning the southern region as a new growth engine for South Korea, and pledged close cooperation to keep the project on track. Both sides also agreed to jointly develop measures to incorporate into the project budget the rise in construction costs caused by the ongoing war in the Middle East.

The Daewoo Engineering & Construction consortium launched basic design work for site preparation and detailed design for the priority construction phase on March 9, with ground-breaking on the priority work expected by year's end. However, the six-month conflict in the Middle East has driven up oil and raw materials prices significantly, placing financial strain on local construction firms participating in the project.

With the possibility of local contractors withdrawing from the project now being raised, authorities say measures are needed to ensure smooth progress.

The city is gathering input from participating companies to ease their financial burden and ensure the Gadeokdo New Airport opens on schedule, while working with the central government and the National Assembly to find ways to incorporate the higher construction costs into the project budget.

"Bringing construction costs in line with reality is a critical task not only for easing the financial burden on participating firms, but also for securing the safety and quality of the Gadeokdo New Airport and keeping the project on its original schedule," a city official said. "We will continue to work closely with relevant agencies toward that end."

The city is also in talks with the Office for Government Policy Coordination on operating a pan-government permitting support task force that would comprehensively manage the permitting process and mediate disagreements between agencies, with the aim of breaking ground on the main construction work next year without delay.

"The Gadeokdo New Airport is key infrastructure for establishing Busan — and the broader southern region — as a new growth engine for South Korea," Mayor Jeon said. "I will communicate and cooperate with relevant agencies to ensure the priority construction work breaks ground this year without delay."

He added, "For the swift construction and timely opening of the Gadeokdo New Airport, I will work as one team with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Gadeokdo New Airport Construction Authority to resolve pending issues one by one."


kaf2002@heraldcorp.com