Busan, South Korea’s second largest city, with a population of 4.2 million, is bigger than Madrid, nearly as large as Milan, and busy like New York and Osaka. It has South Korea’s largest port, the fifth largest in the world, which unloads a shipping container every three seconds.
Geoje is an island seven times larger than Manhattan but with just one-eighth the population. The island is accessible by automobile but the route is 86 miles (140 km) and takes 3 1/2 hours, making it one of the worst commutes in the world. The distance across the bay is just 3.1 miles (5 km) and since the Super link was built the commute takes just 40 minutes.
The Busan-Geoje “fixed link” is a four-lane highway running 15 m beneath the sea between two very large cable-stayed bridges in what turned out to be one of the largest construction projects in history. There are 18 segments each about two football fields in length and heavier than an aircraft carrier. The segments were towed into position by barges and sunk to within 35 mm of each other. Below the segments thousands of concrete columns were bore into the seabed to protect the highway from earthquakes and provide stability.