Soyang River Dam

The Soyang River Dam (소양강댐/昭陽江堤坝) is a multi-purpose dam constructed in October 1973 for power generation, irrigation and flood control located northeast of Chuncheon City, Gangwon-do. The dam which is 123 meter high and 530meter long, is supposed to contain 1.9 billion ton of water.

Throughout its 40 year history, Soyang River Dam has been a witness to Korea’s unprecedented economic growth and industrialization.

Key words
multi-purpose dam, economic development plan, Chung Ju-yung, Hyundai Construction, Jubail Harbor

History
Originally the dam was designed by a Japanese company as a single purpose gravity dam using concrete and steel. Serious discussions took off in 1965. Persuaded by Chung Ju-yung, legendary CEO of Hyundai Construction Co., Ltd., President Park decided to change the plan against fierce opposition of government officials so as to build a rock-fill dam (사력댐/砂礫堤坝) instead.

The main reasons of the change were that the domestic construction industry lacked the capacity to produce steel and cement, items required for building gravity dams, and that transportation costs for those materials were too high. Chung insisted that clay, sand and stones, all materials for rock-fill dams, were easier to obtain. Rock-fill dams also stand stronger against external shocks such as possible North Korean shelling.

During the six-and-a-half-year construction period, which was 2.6 times longer than that of the Gyeongbu Expressway, approximately 5 million people were put to work each year. The scale was unprecedented as almost everything from design plans to heavy equipment for construction, such as 32-ton dump trucks, vibrating compactors and excavators, were introduced to Korea for the first time.

As a result, Asia’s biggest and the world’s fourth-largest dam at the time was built, launching an era of water resource utilization. The dam’s water surface is as wide as 70 kilometers square (16,405 square feet), and the basin is 2,703 square kilometers.

Functions
The Soyang River Dam served as the foundation of the "Miracle on the Han River" - the name given to Korea’s economic growth - and is still bringing tangible benefits to the Korean economy along with 15 other multi-purpose dams in the country.

The dam has effectively procured water for industrial use and contributed to flood control in times of floods or drought. The multi-purpose dam has the capacity to provide 45 percent of the water supply in the Seoul Metropolitan area, which is about 623 million cubic meters out of a total 1.39 billion cubic meters of water. The construction can also control 500 million cubic meters of floodwater, alleviating the damage to lives and property along the Han River during the wet summer season.

Another function of the dam is the production of non-polluting hydroelectric power, with its facility capacity reaching 0.2 million kilowatts and an annual generation quantity of 353 gigawatts. When the hydroelectric power facility began operating in 1973, in the middle of the second oil shock, the Soyang River Dam supplied one third of the country’s total water power generation, offering a solution to the electric power shortage.

Plan to evolve the dam
Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water 한국수자원공사) has been looking for ways to maximize and diversify the utility of the Soyang River Dam as the functions have been mostly restricted to economic development and flood control in the past.

K-water has been particularly devoted to turning the dam into a tourist mecca by making use of the beautiful waterfront near the dam. In line with K-water’s “environment improvement project,” the Soyang River Dam now has a water museum and environment-friendly spaces. K-water will also renovate decrepit facilities and turn them into convenient resting spaces.

K-water is reportedly committed to turning the 16 multi-purpose dams, including the Soyang River Dam, into tourist attractions. Such businesses related to revitalizing the dam would help rediscover the cultural, tourist and leisure values of the dam, contributing to raising value of lives for the residents and boosting the local economy.