Sea Tunnel

Colored light falls on walls with an artificially made rock relief. Behind this finish, a seventy-meter passage was cut through the coastal cliff, connecting two sections of the seaside promenade. The four-meter opening makes it noticeably more spacious than an ordinary pedestrian passage.

At the tunnel exits, people take turns photographing each other against the sea. This photo spot was set up when the tunnel opened, but the passage itself appeared because of those who had previously reached this point and turned back.

The continuation of the coastal trail lay beyond the cliff. To get there, people had to climb roughly one hundred fifty steps of the Piano Stairs. Elderly residents and other visitors complained to district officials: a level walk ended in a steep climb. More than four out of every five people did not complete the entire route.

In the spring of two thousand sixteen, it became clear that this break also caused problems in an emergency. The car carrier Ocean Tango was driven by strong winds onto rocks beside the coastal trail, and fuel leaked from the vessel. The coast guard, city employees, and volunteers cleaned the water and shore, but equipment could be brought in only from the trail’s beginning. The cliff and the stairs blocked the second access route.

District specialists had already been preparing a pedestrian-tunnel project, and after the accident they explicitly included access for emergency vehicles in its purpose. For this, the passage was designed to be four meters wide. In August two thousand seventeen, builders began removing rock. They cut seventy meters through the cliff and connected the former end of the promenade with Wave Plaza on the continuation of the shore. The work cost nearly four billion won.

On December twenty-sixth, two thousand eighteen, the tunnel opened. Elderly people gained a direct route instead of the stair detour, emergency services gained a second entrance, and the entire coastal trail, a little more than three kilometers long, became continuously passable. Inside, artificial rock finishing, colored lighting, and a photo niche were installed.

The four-meter opening now serves as a frame for the sea. Its width was chosen so that an emergency vehicle could pass through the same frame.