Jeonnam Police: "From Structural Inspections to Protecting Lives on Sea Bridges"

35 CCTVs Connected to Local Government Monitoring Centers
Collaboration Among 10 Agencies Addresses Management Blind Spots

A continuous monitoring system aimed at preventing suicide risks has been established on four sea bridges in Jeonnam Province. This marks an expansion of bridge management from focusing solely on the safety inspection of the structures to also protecting the lives of pedestrians.

The Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 10th that, through collaboration among ten organizations—including the Iksan Regional Land Management Office, Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Metropolitan City, and relevant local governments—a real-time monitoring system has been set up on four sea bridges within the province.

Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency Building Exterior

Jeonnam, which has 2,165 islands, is the largest archipelago region in the country, and numerous sea bridges have been constructed throughout. However, until now, bridge management has been primarily focused on safety inspections of the structures themselves.

Bridge management agencies were mainly responsible for facility safety inspections, while local governments faced difficulties managing pedestrian safety. Although they had a duty to prevent suicides, it was challenging for them to allocate their own budget to nationally managed facilities.

This establishment of a monitoring system is significant in that it addresses the blind spots arising from differences in work scope and budget execution between agencies through collaboration.

By connecting CCTV footage installed on the bridges to local government monitoring centers, a foundation has been laid for continuously monitoring dangerous situations.

The Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency began discussions with related agencies last July by selecting six major sea bridges for review.

Through ongoing discussions and emphasizing the need for facility improvements, a monitoring system has now been put in place on four bridges spanning the areas of Mokpo, Jindo, Haenam, Wando, and Gwangyang.

From December last year to July this year, new CCTVs were installed and footage was integrated, so that currently a total of 35 cameras are operated in real time through local government monitoring centers.

There are also plans to further expand the monitoring network.

This year, eight more CCTVs will be installed on bridges in the Yeosu region, and the monitoring system will be gradually extended to bridges in the Goheung region as well. For bridges already under monitoring, the Iksan Regional Land Management Office is planning to add more CCTVs and informational signage to some bridges and is considering installing safety railings to prevent falls.

The Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Metropolitan City is also reportedly considering adding more CCTV cameras for pedestrian surveillance on bridges under its management.

The government has also begun formulating countermeasures.

In May of this year, President Lee Jaemyung designated suicide prevention as a "key task for which the state must be responsible" at a Cabinet meeting, and ordered relevant ministries to take action.

On July 28, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced its plan to strengthen safety facilities on bridges in its report on "Management Plans for Suicide Prevention Sites."

The next challenge lies in reducing the burden of retrofitting facilities at the design stage. Adding CCTV cameras or safety railings to already completed bridges requires significant time and cost.

This is why it is necessary not only to expand the monitoring network, but also to discuss supplementing the design standards for new bridges.

The Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency sees the current bridge design standards as being too focused on vehicle safety and structural integrity, and plans to propose to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other related ministries that separate criteria be established to address pedestrian safety on large sea bridges.

In addition to addressing management gaps in existing bridges through inter-agency collaboration, the goal is to establish an institutional foundation to incorporate safety facilities from the design stage.

An official of the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency stated, "A bridge is meant to connect people, not to become a place where a life is abandoned. We will continue to work closely with related agencies to expand the safety network, so that we can help protect even one more precious life in crisis."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.