Daejeon’s Cheonbyeon Urban Expressway Fully Opens: What This Means for Your Commute

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“I finally feel like I can breathe again. A trip of about 10 km used to take forever…”

A man in his 30s who commutes from Dunggok-dong in Yuseong District to Dunsan-dong in Seo District said he felt relieved on his first commute after the full reopening of the Cheonbyeon Urban Expressway. The stretch had been closed for roughly a month for emergency repairs to a reinforced soil retaining wall and reopened to traffic at 5 p.m. on the 28th.

The corridor had long been a congestion hotspot, and the repair work intensified gridlock on nearby arterial roads, leaving commuters drained. Many people who travel between Sejong and Daejeon rerouted around the construction — detouring near Namsejong IC onto Buk Yuseong-daero, which links Ansan-dong and the Noeun-dong World Cup intersection — worsening traffic across the city.

The city had originally planned a full reopening on May 1, with a complete closure starting at 6 p.m. on March 30 and work scheduled through April 30. Because repair and reinforcement progressed smoothly and pre-opening safety inspections finished ahead of schedule, officials moved the reopening up by three days, easing drivers’ commutes sooner than expected.

Even during the morning rush at about 8:30 a.m. on the 29th, traffic on the Cheonbyeon Urban Expressway flowed much more freely, with speeds recovering to roughly 60–70 km/h (37–43 mph). Apart from some slow spots in merge zones, traffic volume and flow showed notable improvement. The reopening helped relieve the bottleneck, and a vehicle restriction policy in effect since the 8th also appears to have contributed to smoother traffic.
 

With the full reopening, the city removed the PE protective barriers and restored the first lane toward Daejeon to its original condition. To manage traffic during repairs, officials had temporarily used the Sejong-bound first lane for traffic heading toward Daejeon; those merge areas were particularly challenging for inexperienced drivers.

Another commuter in his 20s, identified as Mr. Choi, said, “During the construction it was constant stop-and-go, with speeds around 20–30 km/h (12–19 mph). It was frustrating and doubled my commute. As a newer driver, merging was the hardest part.” He added that drivers often had to detour to enter the expressway and that congestion peaked where vehicles from the Hanbat tollgate merged in.

Earlier inspections detected displacement in the reinforced soil retaining wall on the Wonchon overpass ramp-B section, and a safety evaluation rated the structure ‘Grade E.’ To ensure public safety, the city imposed emergency traffic controls on March 30 and implemented phased traffic measures, but the abrupt closures nevertheless produced unavoidable congestion.

After completing the retaining wall repairs, officials conducted final checks of pavement, traffic safety equipment and signage before fully reopening the route. The city says it will continue to inform residents about traffic conditions and the reopening schedule to minimize lingering inconvenience.

A city official said, “We removed the PE barriers and restored the original lanes in stages to coincide with the full reopening. We deeply appreciate residents’ cooperation with the emergency measures implemented to ensure public safety.”

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