The Jeju Undersea Tunnel (제주해저터널) is a proposed

undersea tunnel An underwater tunnel is a tunnel which is partly or wholly constructed under the sea or a river. They are often used where building a bridge or operating a ferry link is unviable, or to provide competition or relief for existing bridges or ferry li ...

project to connect the South Korean provinces of

South Jeolla South Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollanam-do''; ), also known as Jeonnam, is a province of South Korea. South Jeolla has a population of 1,902,324 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Honam region at the southwestern tip of the Korea ...

and Jeju across the

Jeju Strait Jeju Strait is a strait between the Korean Peninsula (South Jeolla Province) and Jeju Island (Jeju Province). The strait is the boundary between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea as defined by the International Hydrographic Organization, and i ...

, with intermediate stops at the islands of Bogildo and Chujado. The proposed 73 km tunnel is projected to take 11 years to complete at an estimated cost of 14.6 trillion South Korean won (11.2 billion US Dollars).

History

The underwater tunnel would allow the KTX bullet train to connect the port city of

Mokpo Mokpo (; ''Mokpo-si'') is a city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea, located at the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula, close to Yudal mountain. Mokpo has frequent high-speed train services to Seoul, and is the terminus for a number of f ...

and Jeju island. On June 19 2013, the provincial government requested that the central government include 10 billion Korean won as part of the 2014 fiscal year budget to study and plan for the tunnel. The total length of the proposed railway is 167 km, including a 66 km surface interval from Mokpo to Haenam, a 28 km bridge section from Haenam to Bogil Island, and a 73 km stretch from Bogil to Chuja and Jeju Islands. The provincial government predicts that by the time the project reaches completion, as many as 15 million passengers (for comparison over 14 million passengers flew between Jeju and Seoul alone in 2018 making it the world's busiest air route) will take advantage of the service in a year, with an annual savings of 42,000 won in social cost and 140,000 newly created jobs. The idea of connecting the southwestern port city with Korea's largest island in the south was first broached in 2007 by the governors of South Jeolla and

Jeju Province Jeju Province, officially Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, is one of the nine provinces of South Korea. The province comprises Jeju Island (; ), formerly transliterated as Cheju or Cheju Do, the country's largest island. It was previously k ...

s. The project is expected to catalyze new growth in two underdeveloped regions. The undersea railway is set to be operated in conjunction with the Seoul-Mokpo express train project currently underway.

Political difficulties

Residents of Jeju have raised concerns that construction of the tunnel may impact the island's indigenous culture. The proposal was shelved because of the high cost and technological challenge of building the world's longest underwater tunnel. As of August 2014, it was planned to include the project in the master plan for railway infrastructure. As Jeju Airport is beyond its capacity limits, handling mostly domestic flights, an expansion of this airport or a new airport would be the alternative to a tunnel in dealing with the growing travel demand.

References

{{coord missing, South Korea Proposed undersea tunnels in Asia Coastal construction Transport in South Korea Rail transport in South Korea Water transport in South Korea Tunnels in South Korea Unification Church political involvement Proposed transport infrastructure in Asia Proposed transport infrastructure in South Korea

History

Political difficulties

See also

References