South Korea will allow administrative procedures such as design economic feasibility reviews to be waived for approximately 9,000 disaster recovery construction projects annually. The move is expected to significantly shorten the time from a disaster's occurrence to the start of recovery work.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said Tuesday that an amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Construction Technology Promotion Act, which allows adjustments to construction procedures to expedite recovery in disaster-stricken areas, was approved at a Cabinet meeting on the 2nd.
The core of the amendment is the explicit addition of construction projects under disaster recovery plans, as defined by the Natural Disaster Countermeasures Act, to the list of projects eligible for administrative procedure adjustments. While existing regulations already allowed procedural adjustments for "construction projects requiring urgent implementation, such as disaster recovery," local governments and other entities carrying out recovery work in the field had difficulty determining whether routine disaster recovery construction qualified as "emergency construction," limiting the use of the provision.
Under the revision, disaster recovery construction projects can skip or adjust procedures such as design economic feasibility reviews. According to a related amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Construction Technology Promotion Act, scheduled to take effect in early June, design and construction adequacy reviews by local construction technology deliberation committees can also be waived.
"With the full-fledged monsoon season approaching, preemptive responses to natural disasters such as wind and flood damage are more important than ever," said Kim Myung-jun, Director General for Technology and Safety Policy at MOLIT. "We hope this legal revision will accelerate disaster recovery construction and serve as a foundation for protecting public safety."
