Expressway 50 (South Korea)

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / KR-E
	Expressway 50 in South Korea
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	Korea Expressway Corporation
Start of the street:	Incheon
End of street:	Gangneung
Overall length:	234 km
of which in operation:	234 km
Thu ( province ):	Incheon; Gyeonggi-do; Gangwon-do;

The Expressway 50 also known as Yeongdong Expressway ( kor. 영동 고속도로 is Yeongdong Gosok Doro) a freeway in South Korea . The highway is an east-west route through the north of the country, from the western coastal city of Incheon , south of Seoul to Gangneung on the east coast. It is the northernmost coastal-to-coastal highway of South Korea. The highway is 234 kilometers long.

Street description

Seoul Metropolitan Area

The highway begins on the east side of Incheon, a city of 2.6 million people west of Seoul. The highway begins at an intersection with Expressway 110 , one of the three highways between Incheon and Seoul. The first parts of Expressway 50 are heading south and have 2x3 lanes. The highway then turns east and runs along north of the city of Ansan . On the east side of Ansan is an intersection with Expressway 15 , the westernmost north-south highway in the country, which runs from Seoul to Gunsan . The highway runs through a mountainous area south of Gunpo , a suburb of Seoul. Directly to the south is Suwon , a city with 1.1 million inhabitants. East of Suwon, the highway has 2x4 lanes and it crosses Expressway 1 , the main highway in the country that runs from Seoul to Busan in the south. To the east of this junction , the highway again has 2x3 lanes and runs through the suburbs of Seoul. After the suburbs, the motorway will be narrowed to 2x2 lanes.

In East South Korea

Further east, the route leads through a flatter area and leads along the regional city of Icheon (not to be confused with Incheon ), then Expressway 35 is crossed, the north-south route from Seoul to Daejeon . Less than 15 kilometers to the east, it crosses a fourth north-south highway, Expressway 45 . The highway runs along here south of Yeonju and crosses two large rivers. Further east, the area is sparsely populated and there are few cities. Outside the city of Wonju you cross the Expressway 55 , the only north-south highway east of Seoul that leads north. The highway then runs from Daegu in the south to Chuncheon in the north. This part of South Korea is very mountainous and Expressway 50 follows a fairly wide valley with very steep mountains in both directions. The motorway runs through mountains with a height of 200 to 600 meters. The motorway runs over relatively deserted and higher areas. Expressway 50 ends in Gangneung at a large intersection with Expressway 65 , the country's easternmost north-south motorway.

history

The Expressway 50 is one of the first major highway projects in South Korea. Construction began on March 3, 1971, over 104 kilometers between Singal and Saemal , east of Seoul. Expressway 1 was connected at the Singal junction . On December 1st of the same year the entire route section of 104 kilometers opened, of which 104 kilometers were built in just nine months, typical for the construction speed at that time. On March 26, 1974, 97 kilometers from Saemal to Gangneung on the east coast were under construction. This section was completed on October 24, 1975 after eighteen months of construction. These sections of the route were largely single-track. Between 1991 and 1999 this road was widened to 2x2 lanes, including a large number of second tubes through tunnels. In some places completely new tunnels were built.

In 2010 and 2011, part of the route in the Seoul region was expanded to 2x3, 2x4 and 2x5 lanes.

Opening dates of the motorway

from	to	length	date
Singal	Saemal (1x2)	104 km	03/23/1971
Singal	Saemal (2x2)	104 km	December 01, 1971
Saemal	Gangneung (1x2)	97 km	03/26/1974
Saemal	Gangneung (2x2)	97 km	10/14/1975
Ansan	Singal	23.2 km	04/12/1988
Seochang	Ansan	27.6 km	11/20/1990

Traffic volume

The volume of traffic in the metropolitan areas is very high, with up to 170,000 vehicles per day. Further to the east, the volume of traffic is much lower, with only around 20,000 to 50,000 vehicles per day.

Expansion of the roadways

from	to	length	Lanes
Incheon	Ansan	km	2x2
Ansan	Ansan (Expressway 15)	km	2x4
Ansan (Expressway 15)	Suwon	km	2x3
Suwon	Singal (Expressway 1)	km	2x4
Singal (Expressway 1)	Maseong	km	2x3
Maseong	Hobeop (Expressway 35)	km	2x2
Hobeop (Expressway 35)	Yeoju (Expressway 45)	km	2x4
Yeoju (Expressway 45)	Gangneung (Expressway 65)	km	2x2

Web links

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