[Smart Economics] The Cheonggyecheon Restoration That Elevated Seoul’s Standing

20th-century environmental policy: the Cheonggye Overpass… 21st-century environmental policy: the restoration of Cheonggyecheon

Most modern people live in cities. This is even more true in countries like ours, where the rate of urbanization is high. As of 2012, South Korea’s urbanization rate exceeded 90%. In other words, more than nine out of ten people lived in cities such as Seoul. When the population is as heavily concentrated in urban areas as it is in our country, pursuing environmental policy vaguely across the entire national territory yields relatively poor results for the cost. Cleaning an unnamed stream in some rural village is, of course, not a bad thing. But a strategy of selection and concentration focused on improving the environment of large cities can be said to be a policy that benefits more people.

20th-century urban planning: construction of the Cheonggye Overpass

In the mid-20th century, the foundation of urban planning in the capital city of Seoul was the building of transportation infrastructure. This was because rapid industrialization was driving explosive population growth, along with a rise in the number of vehicles. The core of transportation policy was the construction of overpasses. The Cheonggye Overpass, which stretched nearly 6 km in total length, was completed in August 1976. Cheonggyecheon, which flowed between Jongno and Euljiro in Seoul, was covered over and a roadway was built above it. At the time, Seoul residents marveled, saying, “Cars are driving in the sky.” The Cheonggye Overpass was the work of Chung Ju-yung and Lee Myung-bak, who led Hyundai Engineering & Construction.

After the Cheonggye Overpass proved a great success, similar overpasses were built throughout Seoul. People took pride in them, seeing elevated roads as a symbol of modern urban planning. For a time, the sight of the sun rising over the Cheonggye Overpass opened Korean Newsreel broadcasts.

In a large city, transportation policy is also environmental policy. In a complex urban environment, creating a smooth transportation system is itself a way of improving urban residents’ quality of life. Cars stuck bumper to bumper on gridlocked roads, unable to move and spewing exhaust fumes, are in themselves a form of environmental pollution. To the extent that traffic flowed more smoothly because of elevated roads, Seoul’s air environment in the 20th century also improved.

21st-century new urban planning: restoration of Cheonggyecheon

Remarkably, 21st-century urban planning in Seoul also began with Cheonggyecheon. In the 2000s, calls grew louder to remove the concrete lines drawn across the Seoul skyline. Lee Myung-bak, who had served as a construction company CEO in the 1970s and built the Cheonggye Overpass, became the chief executive of Seoul and took the lead in restoring Cheonggyecheon.

Some raised concerns about traffic problems resulting from the removal of the overpass, but fortunately Seoul had by then developed public transportation infrastructure such as the subway, and road capacity was sufficient, so the feared traffic chaos did not occur. Meanwhile, advances in emissions-capture technology meant automobile exhaust was no longer a major problem.

Cheonggyecheon was restored in September 2005, nearly 30 years after it had been covered over for the construction of the overpass. The people who had marveled 30 years earlier at the sight of the elevated road now marveled at the fact that clean water flowed through the heart of a major city like Seoul.

The environmental improvement effects of Cheonggyecheon are unmistakable. It reduces the urban heat island effect in summer and helps control flooding during the monsoon season. The sense of freshness that clean water flowing through a bleak downtown gives city residents is difficult to measure in monetary terms. Just as the Cheonggye Overpass 30 years earlier had sparked a boom in elevated-road construction, Cheonggyecheon also sparked a wave of stream restoration projects, including Anyangcheon, Yangjaecheon, and Jungnangcheon in Seoul, as well as local streams in other regions. Going further, one could say that water quality improvement projects across the country, including the Four Major Rivers Project, all owe a debt to the success of Cheonggyecheon.

Cheonggyecheon restoration, regarded as a model of national land development

Improving and cultivating the urban environment does not necessarily mean only planting trees and expanding parks. Depending on the circumstances, building elevated roads to improve transportation conditions can also be an excellent environmental improvement measure. Then, as time passes and circumstances change, removing elevated roads and restoring waterways can become the environmental improvement measure instead. As economic development progresses and the condition of the national land environment changes, environmental policy also requires a flexible approach suited to each moment.

Cheonggyecheon received the “Best Implementer Award” at the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy, and in 2010 it received an award from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The American current affairs weekly Time bestowed the title “environmental hero” on then-Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak. Lee Myung-bak, who raised Seoul’s brand value through the restoration of Cheonggyecheon, was regarded as a politician who demonstrated outstanding leadership. It is a clear example of what exemplary national land development in the 21st century looks like.

△ Please remember

Building elevated roads to improve transportation conditions can also be an excellent environmental improvement measure. Then, as time passes and circumstances change, removing elevated roads and restoring waterways can become the environmental improvement measure instead. As economic development progresses and the condition of the national land environment changes, environmental policy also requires a flexible approach suited to each moment.

Sung-no Choi, President of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: [스마트 경제 읽기] 수도 서울의 품격을 높인 청계천 복원

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2021-02-01

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=5&idx=23456