Just Build It and Leave? "Too Crammed!"… The Backwards Timeline

This is the Janghyeon district in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province.

It is a new-town-scale public housing district with 18,000 households, where the main complexes were completed in 2024.

Two years after residents moved in, the surrounding roads remain exactly as they were before the move-in.

[Reporter Jeon Hyung-woo : This is a road heading from the Siheung Janghyeon district toward Seoul, and it is still only two lanes in one direction.]

While metropolitan transportation improvement measures were established during the housing site development—such as expanding roads and creating intersections—all seven planned roads are not scheduled to be fully completed until 2032.

[Siheung Janghyeon District Resident : It is very narrow and congested during the morning commute. This road is too narrow on both sides, so cars get stuck...]

Out of 96 infrastructure facilities related to resident living in small-to-medium-sized metropolitan public housing projects carried out by LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation), 52 were found to be completed only after residents moved in.

The situation is similar for the 3rd-generation new towns, where move-ins are set to begin this coming December.

This is a road near the Incheon Gyeyang district. The road is narrow with just two lanes in one direction, and severe traffic congestion occurs as vehicles tangle at a Y-shaped intersection.

Road expansion and intersection improvements were scheduled to be completed by this year, but the completion date has been pushed back to 2030 due to delayed approvals from Incheon City.

In the Hanam Gyosan district, the opening of 10 roads that should have already been finished 1 or 2 years ago has been delayed from 2030 to 2032 due to delayed administrative approvals.

It was found that out of 89 metropolitan transportation projects across five 3rd-generation new town districts, 69 have not yet broken ground, and the implementation schedules for 8 remain undetermined.

[Kang Dae-shik / Member, National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee (People Power Party) : We need to prioritize transportation facilities required before move-ins, and focus support on budgets and administrative procedures for delayed projects to advance their opening dates...]

Experts point out that if housing is built without supplying roads and transportation facilities on time, residents' inconveniences will inevitably grow and the effectiveness of housing supply will be halved, making it crucial to thoroughly manage project schedules such as shortening approval processing periods.

Build Houses First, Roads 8 Years Later?… 'Belated Supply' That Makes Residents Cry (8 News, October 21, 2026)

Reported by Jeon Hyung-woo | Producer: JUNHWI | Cinematography: Lim Woo-shik, Kang Dong-chul | Video Editing: Lee So-young | VJ: Jung Han-wook | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.