New vision for an old city
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Workers add the finishing touches to the Ahyeon Overpass in central Seoul, on Sept. 19, 1968, one day before its opening. After 46 years, the city demolished the deterioreting road as part of a new urban redevelopment plan. / Courtesy of Seodaemun District Office
By Yoon Sung-won
When Korea was in the midst of its 1960s construction craze, when highways and civic megaliths reassured people of industrialization in progress, only a few recognized the stupidity of putting major roads in the hearts of cities.
Half a century later, the country is showing urgency in removing the brutal structures of the past. It took 45 days for Seoul City to destroy the 46-year-old Ahyeon Overpass to make room for its new urban development plan and public transport connections.
A large number of shopkeepers and pedestrians gathered on March 26 to see workers take out the last remaining column of the elevated road. Some residents came out with their children. The job took less than a half-hour.
The road, completed in 1968, was initially built to improve traffic flow and boost regional economy. Those were precisely the same reasons the city decided to destroy it in 2014.
As with many other big roads penetrating cities across the country, the Ahyeon Overpass had a significant impact to the lives of people who lived or did business nearby.
Residents hope that the road’s removal will prove as addition by subtraction _ making the area more accessible from the city’s center, allowing for better residential areas and public spaces, and pushing out the seedy entertainment districts that thrived in the bifurcated environment.