Warning of a "Severed Spine" at a 9-cm Gap on Seongsu Bridge... A Chilling Photo Draws Attention

[Financial News]  As a gap of about 9 cm recently appeared at the entrance ramp on the south end of Seongsu Bridge in Seoul, raising public concern, a public service ad using an X-ray image of a broken spine has appeared at the site and is drawing attention.
According to Yonhap News Agency on the 15th, Lee Je-seok, head of the public service advertising specialist Lee Je-seok Advertising Research Institute, said he recently carried out a guerrilla campaign at the point where the gap appeared on the south-end access road to Seongsu Bridge.
The campaign, launched to stress the need for a detailed safety inspection of the ground beneath the road, used X-ray images of a broken spine on both sides of the concrete retaining wall where the gap appeared. It was a visual way of showing the danger of the gap by comparing the unseen condition under the road to the inside of the human body.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the gap was found in the ramp section leading from Olympic-daero toward Jamsil into Seongsu Bridge, an uphill access road built with soil and retaining walls.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has monitored the gap in this section through previous detailed safety inspections and says there is no structural safety issue, as there has been no additional subsidence since 2016.
However, Lee argued that, as about 30 years have passed since the section was reopened, it is necessary to check for aging internal drainage facilities and the possibility of soil washout.
He also pointed to heavy rainfall, soft ground around the Han River, and nearby construction projects such as the Han River undersea tunnel for the GTX-A line of the metropolitan express railway and the undergrounding of Dongbu Expressway as factors that could threaten ground safety.
Lee criticized the idea that simply patching the asphalt to reduce the gap would not reveal whether there are cavities or soil loss beneath the road. He stressed that detailed investigations, including ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys and subsurface drilling, are needed, and that the results should be disclosed to the public transparently.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said it will further strengthen safety management to ease public anxiety and conduct a full inspection of all bridge connection ramps crossing the Han River to check for similar cases.
Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor Oh Se-hoon said on the 10th, "Because bridges are important infrastructure that citizens use every day, even small changes must be managed with the utmost care so that people do not feel uneasy," adding, "Although we have confirmed that there is no problem with current safety, we will carry out expert reviews and detailed inspections in light of public concern, and then proceed with reinforcement work based on the results."
[email protected] Kim Soo-yeon Reporter