“Will the Gwangju Civil/Military Airport be relocated to Muan, Jeollanam-do?”

The location and facility layout plan for the integrated airport where Gwangju’s civilian and military airports will be relocated has been revealed for the first time.

On the 24th, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Jeollanam-do, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Gwangju and Jeonnam provincial committees held a discussion on noise measures in preparation for the relocation of Gwangju civilian and military airports at the International Conference Room of Muan, Jeollanam-do.

Construction is expected to take at least 9 years after the previous site selection, and the military airport site area is 15.3㎢ (4.63 million pyeong), which is 1.9 times larger than the current Gwangju County Airport.

The area includes 11.7㎢ (3.53 million pyeong) of military bases and 3.6㎢ (1.1 million pyeong) of noise buffer zone.

As of August 2016, the project cost was KRW 5.7 trillion, including KRW 4.1 trillion for relocation projects, KRW 450 billion for support projects, and KRW 1.2 trillion for other costs.

This is the amount needed to build two runways, a military base, and residential/living facilities, as well as land expropriation and compensation, noise damage measures, and support for relocation areas.

Currently, a donation-to-lease method is being considered to build a military airport using the profits generated from developing the former site in Gwangju, and to support the relocation area with the remaining amount.

On this day, the Gwangju Research Institute announced ‘Noise Countermeasures and Support Plans’ and the Jeonnam Research Institute announced ‘Nearby Area Development Plan’.

The most important condition in selecting a candidate site for preliminary relocation is suitability for military operations and airport location, and the layout plan was reviewed in consideration of the civilian and military airport operation systems and the direction of the existing civilian airport runway among the areas around the existing Muan International Airport that met these requirements.

A total of three plans were reviewed, taking into account the parallel separation distance from the existing civilian airport runway and the northern end separation distance.

Of the 1 to 3 plans set at 880m·400m, 1,311m·200m, and 1,900m·0m, respectively, the third was judged to be reasonable.

It is located 1.9km away from the civilian airport runway and has the same northern latitude.

It also meets the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility standards, which stipulate that the minimum distance between a private runway and an independent parallel runway is 1.31 km, and was evaluated as a way to reduce project costs by minimizing coastal reclamation.

It also has the advantage of being ideal for minimizing noise as it flies mainly to the west coast.

The area affected by noise is 19.0㎢, including Mangun-myeon (5.8㎢), Unnam-myeon (12.3㎢), and Hyeongyeong-myeon (0.9㎢), which is 4.2% of the total area of ​​Muan.

This is half of the noise impact area of ​​Gwangju Military Airport (40.21㎢).

As a measure to reduce noise damage, the Gwangju Research Institute secured additional land by compensating for the military airport, which is 1.4 times larger than Gwangju Military Airport (8.2㎢), and the noise buffer zone site (3.6㎢), with 5.7㎢ land expected to have a noise impact of more than 85 ㎢. I proposed a plan.

It was expected that the noise impact could be reduced by restricting night flights and adjusting flight paths from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning.

It was estimated that 450.8 billion won, calculated by subtracting the value of the new military airport from the previous site value, would be spent on the support project.

In addition, Gwangju City promised to support local development projects worth a total of 1 trillion won.

Incentives were also presented, such as the creation of a new and renewable energy complex such as the Sunshine Pension, an aviation maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) industrial complex, support for relocation and settlement, the creation of a complex hinterland city, and the relocation of public institutions to Gwangju.

The economic effects of the construction phase, including relocation and support projects, are expected to generate 5.1 trillion won in production, 1.8 trillion won in added value, and 38,000 jobs.

The expected economic effects of stationing troops were found to be 1 trillion won in production, 570 billion won in added value, and 14,000 jobs.

The Jeonnam Research Institute explained the justification for the integration of Gwangju’s civilian and military airports and the direction for regional development in the southwestern part of Jeollanam-do in connection with Muan International Airport.

Muan International Airport is already specified in the national plan to be used as a central airport in the southwest region by integrating with Gwangju Civil Airport, so it was analyzed that it will be effective in minimizing the cost of building additional infrastructure, securing demand for aviation maintenance, and fostering future growth in the region such as MRO industrial complexes.

Muan, a coastal area, has less noise damage than the inland area and was also evaluated as a suitable area for airport location and military operations.

The Jeonnam Research Institute proposed a plan to establish a logistics environment that connects Muan, the provincial capital, with the industry and economy of surrounding local governments, to develop it into a Northeast Asian aviation and logistics hub, and to create an airport complex city of 1.4 million square meters around Muan International Airport.

It was also proposed to build a central inland highway in Jeollanam-do connecting Muan International Airport, Naju Innovation City, Suncheon, and Gwangyang.

Attention is being paid to whether the blueprint materialized in Muan, which is mentioned today as a candidate site for airport relocation, will be able to move the hearts of Muan residents who are negative about the military airport relocation.

Integrated Airport Military Airport Relocation Location Facility Layout Muan Jeonnam Gwangju