Korea Expressway Corporation wins two awards at Public Institution AI Innovation Challenge for advances in preventive facility management

[Financial News] Korea Expressway Corporation won two awards at the Public Institution AI Innovation Challenge for technologies that use AI to automatically detect defects in road facilities and support decisions on bridge repairs.
Korea Expressway Corporation said on the 29th that it had won the top prize in the Best Use of AI category and an excellence award in the AI Service Demonstration and PoC category at the 2026 Public Institution AI Innovation Challenge, held on the 28th at Nuritkum Square in Sangam-dong, Seoul. The competition, co-hosted by the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Science and ICT, drew 316 project submissions from 105 organizations.
The ‘AI-Based Automated Road-Facility Inspection System,’ which won the top prize, uses equipment fitted with line-scan cameras and other devices to inspect road pavement, bridges and tunnels without traffic controls. It automatically detects damage, cracks and other defects, reducing the need for workers to enter hazardous sites and helping identify defects early.
Korea Expressway Corporation expects the technology to cut inspection time by up to 98% compared with manual inspections and save about 6.5 billion won in inspection costs annually.
‘Highway Safety AI Partner Dr.BridgAI,’ which won an excellence award in the Demonstration and PoC category, is an AI agent specializing in bridges that uses bridge maintenance records and on-site data.
When staff upload photos of damage or ask about a bridge’s condition using a PC or mobile device, the agent finds relevant standards and similar cases to help assess the cause of the damage and options for repair and reinforcement. It can also be used to prepare reports.
Korea Expressway Corporation said that, in a pilot deployment at about 80 aging or high-risk bridges, the AI assessments matched expert judgments. It expects that, when applied in the field, the response period will shrink from 10 days to 3 and save 7.6 billion won in annual budget.
[email protected] Choi Ga-young Reporter