PR Center

Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (Ssangyong E&C) has secured the contract for Section 9 of the Southern Inland Railway roadbed construction project from Korea National Railway.

Section 9 will extend 24.6 kilometers from Goseong-eup in Goseong County to Sadeung-myeon in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. The total contract value is KRW 806.5 billion, with Ssangyong E&C holding a 45% stake, KCC Engineering & Construction 15%, and eight other companies 5% each. Construction is scheduled to take 60 months from commencement.

Announced on September 29, this latest award follows similar successes in January, when the company was contracted for Sections 5-2 and 8-2 of the same project, worth KRW 232.2 billion and KRW 211 billion, respectively. With Section 9, the company will handle three of the project’s 14 sections, underlining its construction capability and bid competitiveness for major national railway projects.

Notably, the entire 24.6-kilometer Section 9 will run through tunnels, including a 2.9-kilometer stretch that will become Korea’s first subsea railway tunnel employing shield TBM technology. As the most technically challenging part of the Southern Inland Railway project, the section drew considerable interest in the contractor selection process from the outset.

In its bid, Ssangyong E&C drew on its track record in major railway and complex tunnel projects, as well as its expertise in large-diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM) construction. Its current work on Section 5 of the Pyeongtaek-Osong quadruple-track expansion project, where it is using a large-diameter TBM with an outer diameter of approximately 11 meters, was particularly well received.

“This contract is a recognition of the construction experience and knowhow we have built up through our major railway and tunnel projects,” a company official said. “Despite the technical complexity of the project, which includes Korea’s first subsea railway shield-TBM tunnel, we can deliver it successfully by drawing on our expertise in the field.”

Since joining Global Sae-A Group at the end of 2022, Ssangyong E&C has expanded its order intake across overseas projects and domestic housing, backed by the group’s support. Its domestic civil engineering business has also gained momentum this year, with wins for three sections of the Southern Inland Railway and the Donghae New Port coal berth project, taking new orders 30% above 2025 levels.