Great article in JoongAng Daily.
SONGDO, Incheon – The mercury dips below zero, and a cold wind hits your face hard.
The wintry marine weather makes itself felt on every inch of the deck as the boat navigates the waters off the West Coast.
The usually 30-minute journey sometimes turns into hours if rain, snow or strong waves come. It seemed a hard enough trip in itself when a reporter took it last Tuesday.
To Chung Myung-hyun, a 31-year-old assistant manager at Samsung Engineering and Construction, it is the only means of commuting to work, and he has repeated it twice a day over the past three and a half years.
Chung works as a main construction field manager in the middle of the sea near this Incheon district.
He is leading the effort to build the longest-ever cross-sea bridge in Korea. His hard work is slowly coming to an end, and the fruit it will bear is great.
The Incheon Bridge, construction of which began in July 2005, is scheduled to be finished by October of this year. It will be the fifth-largest cable-stayed bridge in the world.
“At this pace, we think we will be able to finish this one month earlier than scheduled,” Chung said, turning his eyes toward the massive bridge as it emerged on the horizon.
On Dec. 16 of last year, an 800-meter (0.5-mile) section between the bridge’s two main towers was connected, completing a 12.3 kilometer over-sea section.
The entire bridge will be more than 21.27 kilometers long.
Unlike the proposed Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere,” the Incheon Bridge definitely has a point.
Linking the Incheon International Airport on Yeongjong Island and the international business district of New Songdo City, the bridge has grabbed the attention of many locals for its potential to improve logistics in the metropolitan area, turning Korea into the Northeast Asian economic hub the government has long pursued.
People, including those who have worked on the bridge construction, say it serves as a source of hope, which Korea and many other countries are short on these days amid the biggest economic crisis in decades.
“What we are building is not just a bridge, we are building hope,” said construction worker Eom Sang-hyun, 51, while he cleared away machinery from the completed over-sea section.
Some believe that the project will go a long way to reviving the Korean economy, given the enormous resources poured into it.
According to the Samsung Joint Venture, a group of seven local builders formed for the project and led by Samsung Engineering and Construction, more than a million people have been mobilized for the project each year since construction began.
The number of pieces of heavy machinery used on the site has reached 100,000, including 27,500 large cranes and 52,000 tugboats.
The total length of steel rebar used is 127,000 meters, enough for 7,500 apartment units.
“Many of the workers here have sacrificed their time with their families for this project, but they think it’s worthwhile,” Chung said.
“We believe that this bridge, the world’s fifth-largest, will contribute to brightening the future for Korea,” he added.
