Older Incheon bridges grant toll breaks to foreign residents, but newest does not

Vehicles travel across the newly opened bridge linking Yeongjong Island, home to Incheon International Airport, with Cheongna International City in Incheon, Jan. 5. Yonhap

By Park Ung

• Published Jan 12, 2026 4:22 PM KST
• Updated Jan 12, 2026 10:01 PM KST

Critics question consistency of city government's toll policy

Incheon’s toll exemption policy for a new bridge has come under renewed scrutiny after The Korea Times reported that foreign residents were excluded under a city ordinance, despite two older bridges connecting the same areas offering toll exemptions.

Critics say the policy runs counter to established local precedent, raising questions about fairness and administrative consistency, with different standards being applied to bridges within the same city.

Yeongjong Island, home to Incheon International Airport, is connected to the mainland by three bridges: Incheon Grand Bridge, Yeongjong Grand Bridge and a 4.68-kilometer bridge that opened last week and has yet to receive an official name.

Under the new bridge’s toll policy, vehicles owned by residents registered at addresses on Yeongjong Island, in Cheongna International City or the islands of Bukdo Township qualify for unlimited toll exemptions, ranging from 2,000 won ($1.36) for passenger cars to 4,400 won for large vehicles. The exemptions will be expanded to all Incheon residents in April.

Foreign residents, however, are not eligible for the exemption, even if they live at the same addresses as Korean nationals. This is because the city ordinance governing the new bridge limits eligibility to addresses registered under the Resident Registration Act, a system local governments use for population tracking and administrative planning.

Under Article 6 of the law, foreign residents are explicitly excluded, as their address records are managed separately under the Immigration Act.

The city's own ordinance on toll exemption for Incheon Grand Bridge and Yeongjong Grand Bridge also defines eligible beneficiaries as residents who have completed “resident registration” — a requirement that also effectively excludes foreign residents.

In practice, however, foreign residents are eligible for a single round-trip toll exemption on the two older bridges under the same conditions as Korean nationals, as another ordinance on support for foreign residents and multicultural families guarantees equal access to public facilities and benefits unless stipulated otherwise by law.

An official at the city government’s Road Division told The Korea Times that the city has applied internal guidelines extending those benefits to foreign residents for the two older bridges since about 2014.

Asked what distinguishes the third bridge, the official said the ordinance for the two earlier bridges was designed primarily to "provide support," while a separate ordinance for the new bridge centers on "toll collection," making them fundamentally different in nature.

The official added that the relatively small number of foreign residents at the time the older bridges were established appears to have made the administrative burden more manageable.

According to the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Authority, the number of foreign residents living on Yeongjong Island rose from 1,090 in 2014 to 2,814 last year, more than doubling in a little over a decade.

The official also said tolls incurred by foreign residents on the two bridges are reimbursed, with 40 percent of the cost shouldered by the IFEZ Authority and another 40 percent by the city government, while Jung District and Ongjin County, where the eligible addresses are located, are responsible for 20 percent.

Asked whether foreign residents could receive toll exemptions for the new bridge under a similar system, the IFEZ Authority said the facility has only recently opened and that the issue would be reviewed.

Local officials and city council members involved in the ordinance said they back extending the same toll exemptions to the new crossing.

Yu Gyeong-hui, chair of the Incheon Metropolitan Council’s Culture and Welfare Committee, said the issue needs to be addressed, potentially through revisions to related ordinances.

A city official from the Foreign Affairs Bureau said toll assistance on the two earlier bridges was made possible by the authorities overseeing them, adding that the city supports the IFEZ Authority’s plan to review the issue but has no further position.

Experts say the new bridge’s policy warrants reconsideration, citing unequal treatment.

Lee Sook-jin, a standing commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, said the issue requires closer examination, but added that granting toll exemptions to other bridges while excluding the new one raises special concern and warrants a comparative review.

Choi Jung-kyu, a lawyer who chairs the diversity communication and mediation committee at the Gyeonggi Institute of Research and Policy Development for Migrants’ Human Rights, criticized the policy as plainly unreasonable.

“The policy contradicts the city’s own prior actions,” Choi said. “While policy differences across local governments can be explained by factors such as fiscal conditions, such inconsistency within the same municipality is difficult to defend.”

Choi added that foreign residents were excluded through administrative inertia rather than intent and called for a swift correction.

“Incheon — home to Incheon International Airport and Cheongna International City — should be among the country’s most migrant-friendly cities, and such contradictory administration risks amounting to a failure of migration policy,” Choi said.

Local daily newspapers have also criticized the new bridge’s toll policy.

Incheon Ilbo, one of the region’s most influential dailies, published an editorial last week arguing that the policy runs counter to the IFEZ Authority’s long-standing efforts to attract foreign investment and workers, and called for toll benefits to be extended to foreign residents.