Korea Expressway Corp. Launches Emergency Management to Address Fuel, Supply and Safety Risks

Korea Expressway Corp. said it is shifting to an emergency management system to respond in advance to overlapping internal and external risks, including persistently high oil prices tied to the Middle East situation, instability in construction-material supplies and a seasonal rise in spring traffic accidents.
 
The company said April 23 it has elevated its regular executive meeting to an emergency management meeting and formed an executive-led task force to review key management issues, activating a companywide crisis-response framework.
 
It held an expanded executive emergency management meeting at its headquarters, chaired by the acting president, with heads of regional units nationwide taking part.
 
Participants discussed steps aimed at easing the public’s economic burden, including stabilizing gasoline prices and ensuring steady fuel supplies at expressway service stations; temporarily waiving tolls for route buses and late-night freight trucks; coordinating the timing of material use among agencies to cope with supply uncertainty for items such as asphalt concrete; and continuously monitoring supply conditions to minimize construction delays.
 
The meeting also reviewed specific measures to improve expressway safety, including operating a joint public-private accident investigation team to develop more effective traffic-accident prevention plans.
 
Alongside headquarters-level steps such as the task force, the company said it will strengthen field-centered crisis management. It will assign headquarters executives as regional leads to directly inspect on-site safety and will keep a practitioner-led mobile inspection team operating at all times to closely manage customer-facing facilities such as rest areas and gas stations.
 
Lee Sang-jae, acting president of Korea Expressway Corp., said, “With severe conditions driven by internal and external uncertainty, we must fulfill the responsibilities of a public institution based on strict public-service discipline.” He added, “Under the emergency management system, we will bring together our full capabilities to minimize inconvenience to the public and do our utmost to secure expressway safety and support people’s livelihoods.”