ULLEUNG ISLAND, North Gyeongsang Province — A state-run airport building undertaking on Ulleung Island has reached almost 70 p.c completion this month, however is dealing with sturdy native opposition to its present design.
Some native residents are involved that the coastal airport’s 1,200-meter runway is just too brief to make sure flight security, urging the federal government to increase the construction — whose underwater basis, constructed 30 meters beneath sea degree, has already been accomplished. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has rejected the demand, calling it pointless.
The islanders initially welcomed the undertaking when the airport was categorized as a “2C” facility — a classification beneath the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group requirements and home aviation legislation set by the ministry, which requires a minimal runway size of 800 to 1,200 meters and limits operations to plane with wingspans between 24 and 36 meters.
Nonetheless, three years after building started in 2020, the ministry reclassified the airport as a “3C” facility, which requires a minimal runway size of between 1,200 and 1,800 meters.
The choice got here after the federal government decided {that a} 2C classification — which limits plane capability to 50 seats or fewer — can be economically unviable. Upgrading to 3C and permitting plane with as much as 80 seats would assist deal with the profitability challenge.
A rendering of the deliberate Ulleung Island Airport / Courtesy of Ulleung County Workplace
The federal government is at the moment creating measures similar to putting in runway lights, enhancing climate forecasting programs, including a localizer and securing a runway finish security space to make sure the airport’s present design stays secure regardless of the class change.
The residents, nevertheless, will not be pleased with the present design, claiming that it can’t accommodate 80-seat plane and must be prolonged to 1,500 meters to forestall deadly accidents.
A Jeju Air flight that crashed whereas touchdown at Muan Worldwide Airport in South Jeolla Province final December, killing 179 folks, nonetheless haunts the island’s residents.
Ulleung County Gov. Nam Han-kwon shares their considerations.
“The airport is being constructed beneath among the nation’s harshest climate situations, with frequent sturdy gusts, so its security must be prioritized above all. Nonetheless, regardless of increasing to accommodate 80-seat plane, the airport retains its unique design. This will increase the danger of accidents throughout takeoff and touchdown and threatens the airport’s long-term operation,” the residents stated in an announcement.
The federal government, nevertheless, downplayed the considerations, insisting that ample security measures will probably be applied. It added that altering the present plan would price an extra 1 trillion gained ($681 million) and lengthen the development interval by three years.
“Extending the runway from its present design will disrupt radar from a navy base working on the island. Apart from, the airport will probably be restricted to servicing small-size airplanes. For pilots in these planes, 1,200 meters or 1,500 meters doesn’t imply a lot distinction,” Kim Hyun-gi of Korea Engineering Consultants Corp., head of the undertaking’s building administration, stated.
Constructed partially on reclaimed land, with a runway strip measuring 1,320 meters by 150 meters, the undertaking is described by the federal government as having the world’s highest engineering issue. To create a concrete basis on the island’s deepest ocean degree, 30 caissons have been manufactured in Pohang, 210 kilometers away on the southeast coast, and transported to the island over the course of 35 months. Every caisson stands as tall as a 12-story condo and weighs 16,000 tons, making them the most important ever utilized in a building undertaking in Korea.
To create the 430,000-square-meter web site, a close-by mountain is being excavated to supply sufficient earth to lift the realm by 46 meters.
The airport, funded with 662 billion gained from the federal government and 217 billion gained from Korea Airports Corp., is scheduled for completion in 2027.
