Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae poses for a photo with attendees at a meeting held Thursday at Incheon City Hall's Rose Hall to address construction delays on the Seoul Metro Line 7 Cheongna International City extension. [Incheon City]
Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae poses for a photo with attendees at a meeting held Thursday at Incheon City Hall's Rose Hall to address construction delays on the Seoul Metro Line 7 Cheongna International City extension. [Incheon City]

Incheon city officials, local lawmakers and construction contractors convened Thursday to find ways to recover lost progress on the Seoul Metro Line 7 Cheongna International City extension, a long-awaited project for residents in the city's northwestern districts.

Incheon held the meeting at Rose Hall in city hall, with Mayor Park Chan-dae, National Assembly members Kim Kyo-heung and Lee Yong-woo, and senior executives from the construction management unit and contractors in attendance.

The gathering was organized to diagnose accumulated construction issues and identify concrete steps to bring the delayed project back on schedule.

Participants agreed that on-site managers alone cannot overcome the current obstacles, and established the principle that headquarters-level decision-making and company-wide support from each contractor must back up field operations.

Specific measures discussed included building a responsibility-based progress management system for each contractor, concentrating personnel and equipment in key sections at critical times, strengthening coordination across construction phases, and resolving on-site difficulties without delay.

"The Cheongna extension is a core piece of infrastructure that will ease the transportation burden in the northwestern area, and I take the delay in its opening very seriously," Park said. "Each contractor must not leave responsibility solely to the site — mobilize the full capacity of your headquarters and commit every necessary resource without reservation."

Park also stressed that safety is as important as speed, urging contractors to pursue substantive progress while maintaining rigorous safety management.

Assembly members Kim and Lee conveyed directly to the contractors the community's frustration over the delays and residents' strong desire for an early completion.

They also pledged to provide full budgetary and institutional support through the National Assembly to ensure the project gets back on track without further setbacks.

Incheon city said it plans to step up oversight following the meeting by conducting regular checks on each contractor's progress, while keeping communication channels with relevant agencies open at all times to accelerate the project.


gilbert@heraldcorp.com