Severe congestion gripped major highways across South Korea on the 24th, the first day of the Chuseok holiday, as travelers headed to their hometowns in earnest. The estimated travel time from Seoul to Busan stretched to nine hours and 30 minutes.
As of 9 a.m., estimated travel times from the Seoul tollgate to major cities were nine hours 30 minutes to Busan, nine hours 20 minutes to Mokpo, nine hours 10 minutes to Ulsan, eight hours 30 minutes to Daegu and Gwangju, seven hours to Gangneung and five hours 20 minutes to Daejeon, according to the Korea Expressway Corp.
In the opposite direction, travel to Seoul was expected to take six hours 30 minutes from Busan, six hours 10 minutes from Ulsan, five hours 30 minutes from Daegu, four hours 10 minutes from Gwangju, three hours 40 minutes from Mokpo, two hours 40 minutes from Gangneung and two hours 20 minutes from Daejeon.
Long stretches of congestion formed on major highways as outbound vehicles piled up. On the Gyeongbu Expressway heading toward Busan, traffic was crawling along a 90-kilometer stretch from near the Giheung rest area to the Namyi junction, as well as a 3-kilometer stretch from near the Singal junction to Suwon and a 24-kilometer stretch from near Namcheongju to the Biryong junction.
On the Jungbu Expressway heading toward Namyi, congestion persisted along a 22-kilometer stretch from the Hanam junction to near the Gyeonggi Gwangju junction, an 18-kilometer stretch from near the Daeso junction to near the Jincheon tunnel and a 14-kilometer stretch from near Ochang to the Namyi junction.
The Korea Expressway Corp. said outbound congestion, which began the previous day, would peak between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. before easing around 8 to 9 p.m. Inbound traffic was expected to be heaviest between noon and 1 p.m. and to clear around 6 to 7 p.m.
Traffic volume on expressways nationwide was projected at about 6.16 million vehicles. The corporation forecast that 510,000 vehicles would travel from the greater Seoul area to other regions, while 380,000 would head into the capital region.
