Expressway 12 (South Korea)

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / KR-E
	Expressway 12 in South Korea
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	Korea Expressway Corporation
Start of the street:	Gwangju
End of street:	Okpo
Overall length:	182 km
of which in operation:	182 km
Thu ( province ):	Jeollanam-do; Jeollabuk-do; Gyeongsangnam-do; Gyeongsangbuk-do; Daegu;

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / KR-E
	Expressway 12 in South Korea
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	Korea Expressway Corporation
Start of the street:	Muan
End of street:	Gwangju
Overall length:	42 km
of which in operation:	42 km
Thu ( province ):	Jeollanam-do; Gwangju;

The Expressway 12 is a freeway in South Korea . The highway consists of two parts, a road section from Muan to Gwangju and a road section from Gwangju to the Daegu region . This section is also 88 Olympic Expressway called, and refers to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and should not with the Route 88 are confused, an urban motorway in Seoul. The highway is an east-west highway in the southern part of South Korea. Gwangju and Daegu are two million cities of national importance. The two parts are together 225 kilometers long.

Street description

Western part

The highway begins at Muan International Airport , the new airport in Muan, in the extreme southwest of South Korea. The motorway here has 2 × 2 lanes and runs through the coastal plain to the east. Soon mountains are in sight and a short tunnel is crossed. Near Muan there is an intersection with Expressway 15 , the north-south highway along the country's west coast to Seoul. The highway then continues up to 30 kilometers away from Gwangju, a city with 1.4 million inhabitants and one of the larger cities in South Korea. The road here leads through a multitude of small river valleys of the coastal plains and some mountain ridges, so that the highway has a multitude of tunnels. The highest peaks are around 300 meters high. The highway ends on the southwest side of Gwangju. Here you come to the second part of Expressway 12 via a side road and the Route 77 city motorway .

Eastern part

The eastern portion of Expressway 12 begins 10 kilometers northeast of Gwangju at an intersection with Expressway 25 , which leads to Busan and Seoul . The freeway then runs north with 2 × 2 lanes and crosses Expressway 253 , an east-west route that runs to the west coast. The highway goes south past Damyang and then goes back to a mountainous area with a large number of tunnels and bridges. At 500 meters, the mountains are not very high either, but they are steep and wooded. The highway runs through Sunchang , which is a little east, and just before Namwon is an intersection with Expressway 27 . The motorway then loops around a mountain range and goes first northeast, then southwest, and then northeast again.

Beyond Hamyang , Expressway 35 is crossed. The mountains in this area are a little higher with up to 1000 meters and the motorway turns slightly to the north. It then leads along Geochang , where the highway turns east again. After Goryeong the Expressway 45 is crossed. Then it crosses the Nakdong River and then the highway ends on Expressway 451 which leads to Daegu . Daegu has 2.5 million inhabitants.

history

The western part of Expressway 12 is called Muan-Gwangju Expressway ( kor. 무안 광주 고속도로 ). This part is fairly new as Muan International Airport was built on the coast to replace a number of airports in the area, including that of Gwangju. Construction began in 2002 and the first section opened on November 8, 2007 between Expressway 15 and Muan International Airport. The section between Gwangju and Expressway 15 opened on May 28, 2008, thus completing the western part of Expressway 12.

The eastern part of Expressway 12 is called 88 Olympic Expressway , after the 1988 Olympic Games . Much of this motorway is single lane. On November 14, 1973, the first section opened between Gwangju and Damyang. From 1981 the rest of the line to Daegu was built and opened on August 11, 1984. In 2001 the street was assigned the number 12. The section between Gwangju and Damyang was widened to 2 × 2 lanes and opened on December 7, 2006.

Opening dates of the motorway

from	to	length	date
Goseo	Damyang	008 kilometers	11/14/1973
Damyang	Okpo (1 × 2)	175 km	08/11/1984
Goryeong East	Okpo (2 × 2)	032 km	07/12/2006
Muan Airport	Naju	032 km	11/08/2007
Naju	Unsu	010 km	05/25/2008

future

Broadening

Today it is part of Damyang to Daegu only developed as a 1 × 2 expressway. On November 20, 2008, work began on widening to 2 × 2 lanes. This project is expected to be completed by December 2015. The mountainous terrain requires a large number of new tunnels. This project shortens the travel time by around 30 minutes and has a higher level of safety on the route.

Gwangju

At Gwangju a piece of about 25 kilometers of the highway is missing. Currently, most vehicles drive on Route 77 , an urban highway that runs like a ring around Gwangju. However, there are no concrete plans to combine the two parts. Such a connection will be long in the east of Gwangju and will be difficult because of the mountainous terrain.

Traffic volume

The volume of traffic on the motorway is very low with 1,000 to 15,000 vehicles per day.

Expansion of the roadways

from	to	length	Lanes
Muan Airport	Unsu	042 km	2 × 2
Goseo	Damyang	008 kilometers	2 × 2
Damyang	Goryeong	143 km	1 × 2
Goryeong	Okpo	032 km	2 × 2

Web links

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Korean)
Wegenwiki (Dutch)