Incheon Bridge Project

COUNTRY | South Korea

REGION | Asia

SECTOR | transport

QII Principles | Principle 1 Sustainable Growth & Development, Principle 2 Economic Efficiency, Principle 3 Environmental Considerations, Principle 4 Building Resilience, Principle 5 Social Considerations, Principle 6 Infrastructure Governance

QII Sub-Principles | 1: SDGs, 1: Wider economic benefits, 2: Life-cycle costing, 2: Operation and maintenance, 2: Technological innovation, 2: Risk management, 3: Environmental Impact Assessment, 3: Environmental Impact Mitigation, 3: Ecosystems, 3: Climate, 3: Weather, 3: Emissions, 4: Resilience, 4: Disaster risk management, 4: Disaster risk insurance, 5: Social Impact Assessment, 5: Job creation, 5: Capacity and institutional building, 6: Growth & development strategies, 6: Procurement transparency, 6: Financial & debt sustainability, 6: Access to information and data, 6: Legal and Regulatory Frameworks, 6: Institutional Framework of infrastructure investment, 6: Transparency of infrastructure investment, 6: Enabling Environment, 6: Policy

Overview

Cost: $2bn (KRW 2.3829 trillion) (Total project cost)

Size: 21.4km (13.3 miles)

Parties involved:

• The competent authority: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport
• Concessionaire: KODA (Incheon Bridge Co., Ltd.)
• Financier: AMEC (Equity 23.03%), the Incheon City (5.93%), KB Kookmin Bank (14.99%), Industrial Bank of Korea (14.99%), Korean private infrastructure investment (41.02%)

Relevant contractual details:

• PPP procurement method: BTO (Build-Transfer-Operate)
• Risk Sharing System: 1) Providing subsidy up to 80% (15 years after the operation) of estimated operating revenue, 2) Refunding excess revenue in excess of 120% (15 years after the operation) of estimated operating revenue

Context: Incheon Bridge is the world’s 5th longest cable-stayed sea crossings. It connects to 2nd and 3rd Kyungin and Seohaean expressway, and as a result shortens the journey time from Seoul metropolitan areas to Incheon Int’l Airport by 40 minutes.

Aim(s) of the project: Its aim is to reduce traveling time along with energy consumption through its accessibility.

Timeline

Key dates including procurement, construction, operations

• Submission of the project (Feb. 2000), Feasibility study (Oct. 2000), Opening of the public tender (Apr. 2001), Evaluation and Selection of Preferred Bidder (Jul. 2001), Negotiation and Contract Award (Jun. 2003)
• Construction: Jul. 2005 ‚Äì Oct. 2009 (52 months)
• Operation: Oct. 2009 ‚Äì Oct. 2039 (30 years)

Relevance to QII

Principle 1: With the check teams established in different offices, the check was carried out with independent analysis and verification.

Principle 2: The construction period was shortened substantially through the application of the FAST TRACK format for the project and it resulted in successful economic efficiency.

Principle 3: The bridge aids to carbon reduction as well as climate change issues through its contribution in reducing logistical costs and environmental pollution. It is expected to cut logistics costs of 480 billion won every year while its environmental strength is to reduce the cost to clean the air, 3.9 billion won.

Principle 4: The two towers, as symbols of the bridge, are of the reverse Y type, which was designed to be capable of withstanding typhoon strength winds of up to 72m/sec, earthquakes of up to 7 points in magnitude and impact from ship collisions.

Principle 5: 

1. It has been expected to directly induce 480,000 new jobs while its influence on the Incheon FEZ(Free Economic Zone) will be 4,840,000 jobs.
2. Numerous domestic and international requests to benchmark the project have been led.
3. Incheon Bridge Company has also performed social contribution activities for local development, such as environmental protection and support for alienated neighbors.

Principle 6: Fair and transparent bidding procedures are established by regulations in South Korea, thus, for the project, its transparent procurement process was carried out.

Benefits

Highlights: A high speed link

Expected and realised benefits: An eco-efficient, low-carbon, resilient, and accessible infrastructure serving

Metrics

How is success measured and reported? The main towers, cables, U-Shaped Design, upper decks, ship collision protectors, and main tower foundations are firmly positioned/taken into account and the bridge has been selected as one of the top-10 construction wonders.

Name of Institution

Korea Development Institute (KDI) Public and Private Infrastructure Investment Management Center (PIMAC)