Seoul to refurbish pavements, set up cameras in Itaewon to help crowd flow

By Lee Hae-rin

Seoul's central district of Yongsan plans to refurbish pavements and install CCTV cameras to help the smooth flow of crowd traffic, hoping to prevent another disaster like the Halloween stampede that happened on Oct. 29 last year, which took 159 lives.

The Yongsan District Office announced a bid for a road repair project within the Itaewon special tourist zone, covering a stretch of 1.4 kilometers in length and 383,292 square meters in area. The area includes the narrow alleyway adjacent to exit no. 1 of the Itaewon subway station and the Hamilton hotel, where the tragic crowd crush took place, as well as international food districts and antique furniture streets.

The 830 million won ($623,886) project is slated to be completed by September.

The district office plans to pave the roads with asphalt concrete to make them less slippery.

By September, closed-circuit televisions (CCTV), equipped with artificial intelligence technology to monitor crowd density and detect early signs of crowd control disasters, will be installed in 70 locations throughout the neighborhood.

To ensure the safety of visitors during large-scale events like the Itaewon Global Food Festival, which attracts approximately 1 million visitors every year, the district office will take extra precautions.

Other district offices that hold similar large-scale events have also implemented road safety measures.

Seoul's Jongno District will install boundary stones and braille pavement tiles in roads stretching over 1,700 square meters in the Buckchon area, which sees elementary school students during the day and tourists visiting the hanok (traditional Korean house) village on the weekends.

Skid-proof pavement has been installed on the roads in the club and shopping district of the city's northwestern Mapo District, while the southern Seocho District plans to implement AI-based video analysis technology in its crowd control system by August.