한국어 번역 - 클릭
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The roads throughout Kahoi-Dong used to be roughly made from concrete. Though unsightly, this was at least functional. The rough surfaces gave traction for both cars and pedestrians in virtually all weathers, as they made their way through the narrow winding streets. Only when hard packed snow turned to ice for a few days each winter did the hilly terain become difficult to traverse.
The Bukchon Plan comments on how unsightly the concrete roads were, and how ill-fitted to the character of the historic district. Without going into great details, the planners undertook to replace the grey, untidy concrete with something more in keeping with hanoks, and more attractive to behold.
Work began to resurface the roads early in 2002. In Kahoi-Dong 31 the intention was to replace the concrete with a new road surface, designed to look like the hard packed red soil that probably paved the streets a century ago. The result was extremely attractive – at first. But poor workmanship and unsuitable materials soon left the roads in a more unsightly mess than ever before.
For example, repairs to the section of road photographed above were completed only as the first severe frosts of winter arrived in late 2005, and before the new surface was properly consolidated. Very quickly, the passage of cars created pot-holes and slowly the road began to crumble away yet again. To fix the problem, the metropolitan government tried spraying the surface with Epoxy and oil-based fixatives and plugging the pot holes with cement as well as clay.
Within days, the fine new road was stained from the application of all these disparate and unsuitable materials, and still the pot holes appear. The activities of construction companies that regularly dig holes in the roads and plug them with concrete, tarmac, or any other randomly selected material only makes matters worse.
Here, as in so many other aspects of implementing the Bukchon Plan, the government has paid no attention to ensuring that their promised improvements are delivered. Money is wasted on poor quality and inferior work that fails to deliver any social benefit.
Red is the colour of blood - could there be a historical
reason why this has proved so difficult? Even so, the sorry state of the
Red Road today is the result of six years of "preservation" and "restoration" work!
A related Page:
What has the Bukchon Plan achieved?
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