Hyundai Engineering has received an order from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport barring it from doing business for eight months. The company disclosed this in a filing on the 11th. The sanction is for a bridge collapse at the Seoul-Sejong Expressway construction site in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province.
The accident occurred in February last year. The site was the Cheongnyongcheon Bridge construction site in Section 9 of the Cheonan-Anseong stretch of the Seoul-Sejong Expressway, located in Seoun-myeon, Anseong. Hyundai Engineering was the contractor. A structure collapsed while a girder (a steel structure that supports a bridge deck) was being installed. Four workers died and six were injured.
The ministry treated the accident as a case in which poor construction, done through intentional or gross negligence, caused serious damage to the main structural parts of a facility or caused human casualties among the general public. The severity of the penalty was set on that judgment.
The penalty covers the company's domestic civil engineering and building contract work. It takes effect on January 1 next year. Contracts signed before the penalty and sites where work has already begun can continue construction.
The company plans to respond legally. It said it will apply for a stay of execution of the business suspension and also file a suit to annul the administrative disposition. If the stay is granted, it can operate normally until the ruling in the main suit is finalized.
There had already been one other business suspension over the same accident. In July, the Seoul Metropolitan Government imposed a three-month business suspension on the grounds of violating its duty to take safety measures. The company filed a suit against the Seoul city government.