Gwanghwamun Square West Street to Be Closed: The East Street Will Become a Two-Way Street from March 6

[경향신문]
On March 6, the street (in front of the U.S. Embassy) on the east side of Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul will become a two-way street instead of the current one-way street. The one-way street along the west side of Gwanghwamun Square stretching from the three-way intersection in front of Gwanghwamun to the crossroad where Sejong-daero meets Jongno will be closed.

The city of Seoul made the announcement on February 22 and asked vehicles traveling both north and south between Gwanghwamun and the Saejong-daero crossroad to use the street on the east side of the square.

The west street in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts will become part of the square, open only to pedestrians, by this coming November, and lead to Seoul’s Pedestrian Forest Trail to create a 2.6-km walkway.

The current five-lane one-way street on the east side of the square will be expanded to a seven to nine-lane two-way street. Thus fewer lanes will be available for vehicles traveling north and south on this street. This could cause chronic traffic congestion.

The Seoul metropolitan government explained, “According to an analysis of the traffic flow since last November, when construction on the east street began, the speed of the vehicles temporarily slowed down shortly after construction began. But it wasn’t so bad as to cause a serious jam, and vehicles are maintaining a speed at previous levels, 22km/h.”

However, since the analysis was conducted at a time when the overall volume of traffic decreased, following a pro-longed COVID-19 outbreak, which began last year, some experts argue that a conclusion based on this analysis alone is insufficient.

Ryu Hoon, director of urban renewal at the Seoul metropolitan government said, “Since vehicles will be traveling both north and south starting March 6, the city of Seoul will cooperate with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and do its utmost to maintain the traffic speed and minimize the inconvenience to citizens.”