Expressways operated by Gyeonggi Province can be used for free during the Lunar New Year holidays of 2018, the Year of the Golden Dog.

On January 30, Gyeonggi Province announced that it would provide toll-free passage on three expressways (Seosuwon-Uiwang Expressway, 3rd Gyeongin Expressway, Ilsandaegyo Bridge) operated by the province for the three days of the Lunar New Year holidays, February 15 through 17.

This measure was taken to help citizens use expressways more safely and conveniently in line with the nationwide holiday expressway toll exemption policy. The government amended the Enforcement Decree of the Toll Road Act in September last year to suspend tolls for expressways from the eve of Lunar New Year and Chuseok through to the following day.

The expressway tolls that are exempted during the Lunar New Year holidays are KRW 800 for the Seosuwon-Uiwang Expressway, KRW 1,200 for Ilsandaegyo Bridge, and KRW 2,200 for the 3rd Gyeongin Expressway. The toll-free period runs 72 hours from midnight February 14 to midnight February 17.

Gyeonggi Province expects that a total of approximately 830,000 vehicles will use the three expressways during this period (350,000 vehicles on the Seosuwon-Uiwang Expressway, 140,000 on Ilsandaegyo Bridge, and 340,000 on the 3rd Gyeongin Expressway). The total value of the suspended tolls is projected to amount to KRW 870 million, including KRW 300 million from the Seosuwon-Uiwang Expressway, KRW 170 million from Ilsandaegyo Bridge, and KRW 400 million from the 3rd Gyeongin Expressway.

Gyeonggi Province exempted tolls for these three expressways on two supplementary holidays and during last year’s Lunar New Year holidays. A total of 374,000 vehicles were exempted from tolls amounting to KRW 389 million on August 14, a supplementary holiday for the National Liberation Day of Korea in 2015, and 359,000 vehicles used the expressways without paying tolls totaling KRW 362 million during the Children’s Day supplementary holiday on May 6, 2016. In 2017, 1,010,000 vehicles were exempted from KRW 990 million in tolls during the Lunar New Year holidays.