Seoul adds rest stop on Olympic Expressway to prevent drowsy driving

Driving the Olympic Expressway, the concrete artery that hugs the southern bank of the Han River, has long meant enduring some of Korea’s most grueling urban traffic jams. Unlike the country’s expansive cross-country expressways, which are punctuated by massive, food-court-laden service stations, Seoul’s intracity highways have lacked places for exhausted drivers to pull over. But municipal authorities are trying to turn a chronic highway hazard into a scenic destination. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Facilities Corp. unveiled the city’s first observatory-style rest area Wednesday on the Olympic Expressway. Located near the southern end of Olympic Bridge in eastern Seoul, the facility marks a stark departure from the utilitarian concrete pull-offs that typically characterize highway infrastructure. Instead, the outpost combines mandatory highway safety features with a landscaped viewing platform specifically angled to capture the Han River’s famous sunsets. The project is part of a broader effort to curb driver fatigue on the city’s 27-mile riverside thoroughWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times