By Ashley Karen
The Boryeong tunnel which is 6.9 km-long, and is the longest undersea tunnel in Korea, is going to be opened on Dec. 1 after 11 years of building and construction.
The tunnel links Daecheon port with Wonsan Island in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province. Presently, the travel time is nearly an hour and 30 minutes by car, but the tunnel and bridge reduced the journey time to only 10 minutes.
W485.3 billion (US$1=W1,192) has been spent on the epic project and there is going to be no toll.
The building works have started in December 2010 from both ends, marking the first time in Korea that bedrock was broken with explosives. But no serious accident happened as the tunnel crept forward at a rate of about 1-3 m per day. The deepest point of the tunnel is 80 m under sea level, and there are two lanes in each direction.
