INCHEON — More than a decade after it opened, the Gyeongin Ara Waterway remains underused because of poor access and overlapping land-use restrictions, and the disconnected stretches around it must be linked without delay, members of the Incheon Metropolitan Council said. Some 270,000 people live in the nearby Geomdan new town, they said, yet a gap of only a few hundred meters keeps residents from reaching the canal.
The Incheon Metropolitan Council said on the 16th that a formal demand to improve access to the Gyeongin Ara Waterway was raised during its review of a supplementary budget bill at the 313th extraordinary session held recently. Yang In-mo of the Democratic Party of Korea, who represents Geomdan District 3 and sits on the special committee on budget and accounts, strongly urged the city administration to connect the missing stretches quickly.
The Gyeongin Ara Waterway, built at a total project cost of about 2.7 trillion won ($1.9 billion) and opened in 2012, was converted into a waterfront and leisure space after it effectively lost the cargo-shipping role originally expected of it. But the land along the canal is bound by overlapping restrictions, including the greenbelt and river-zone designations, and access by public transit and on foot is poor. Critics have called it a half-finished waterway that consumes billions of won in maintenance costs each year.
Council members focused in particular on the fact that the Ara Waterway remains isolated even though Geomdan new town, a large residential area home to about 270,000 people, has been built right next to it, because the pedestrian and cycling network linking the two is broken.
"Even though the Incheon Institute commissioned a study in 2016 on ways to link the Ara Waterway with the Geomdan new town then under construction, the need was only restated and nothing was actually carried out," Yang said. "More than 270,000 people live in Geomdan District, and the Maecheon and Gyeyang streams also connect to Gimpo, but because of an unconnected stretch of about 600 meters in a straight line, or about 1,200 meters along the waterway, many residents cannot make full use of the Ara Waterway." He added that only maintenance funds are being spent while fundamental measures remain inadequate.
City officials acknowledged the need to connect the missing stretches and said they had begun reviewing options.
"Small-stream improvement work and a bike path along the Gyeyang stream in the Geomdan area were built through a Korea Land & Housing Corporation project, but a stretch of about 900 meters near the boundary with Gyeyang District is cut off from the Ara Waterway," said Park Kwang-keun, director general of the Incheon city government's Maritime and Aviation Bureau. "If this stretch is connected, it will expand the cycling network and allow more residents to use the area, so we will review the project cost and consider making adjustments as part of the program to revitalize the waterfront space along the Ara Waterway."
Jung Seung-hwan, director general of the city's Environment Bureau, said that connecting a roughly 1,200-meter stretch of the upper tributary of the Gyeyang stream would improve access to the Ara Waterway and help make better use of the river as a waterfront space. "We will consult with the relevant departments to find ways to use it in a resident-friendly manner," he said.
"Revitalizing the Gyeongin Ara Waterway has to start with improving the access system so that residents can actually come and use it," Yang said. "Because linking the Geomdan new town with the Ara Waterway is something residents would immediately feel, active consultation among the city's relevant departments and substantive measures are urgently needed."
