Expressways of Menghe
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Expressways in Menghe are a network of controlled-access highways built and maintained by the Ministry of Public Transportation. They should not be confused with the Menghean highway system, a network of smaller-volume limited-access roads which feeds and supports the expressway system.
History
Ancient precursors
For most of Menghe's history, long-distance travel between major population centers was primarily conducted by water. The Meng and Crane River basins each linked a large number of cities, allowing barges with passengers and bulk goods to travel more cheaply than carts on land. Over the centuries, engineering projects like dams, weirs, and locks extended the navigable distance up tributary rivers, and canals allowed movement between different river basins.
Organized long-distance road construction mainly served frontier areas where water was scarce, and mountainous areas where a safe overland route was needed. Emperors in the Kang dynasty famously standardized the length of cart axles so that dirt roads would be of even width in rural areas, though enforcement was likely inconsistent.
Early 20th century
Under the Federal Republic of Menghe, automobiles were extremely rare in Menghe, a curiosity reserved for the wealthiest businessmen and some politicians. This situation persisted up to the Greater Menghean Empire, even as cars and trucks began to spread in Casaterra. The Emergency Fuel Law, passed in 1937, imposed a strict need-based licensing scheme for automobile ownership, essentially restricting car use to the top levels of the political and economic elite.
Consequently, the country's road networks remained in a poor state, with very few paved roads outside major cities. Railroads and waterways still dominated inter-city transportation, and even car owners generally kept their vehicles within the cities and suburbs, using trains for long-distance trips.
The lack of roads became a noticeable problem for Allied forces in the final months of the Pan-Septentrion War, especially as the monsoon rains of Summer 1945 turned the dirt cartways of the southern plain into a sea of mud. The problem would grow more persistent during the Menghean War of Liberation, as Allied and Government troops struggled to reinforce and supply outlying positions where rail lines were absent or had been sabotaged.
First highway network
Interest in a nationwide highway network first came to fruition in the 1970s. Sim Jin-hwan, leader of the Communist Party's "productionist faction," hoped that improved infrastructure would aid the country's economic recovery by helping supplies flow between mines, factories, and cities. Leaders of the Menghean People's Army also believed that highways could help motorized units move quickly around the country in response to an amphibious landing or border incursion.
A plan submitted in 1973 proposed a "rhombus on a chain" network, which would run from Baekjin to Emil-si. At Dongrŭng, the highway would split in two, with one branch linking Taekchŏn, Junggyŏng, Hwasŏng, and Insŏng on the central plain, and the other linking Anchŏn, Hyangchun, Haeju, Daegok, and Myŏng'an along the coast. The two lines would then meet at Sunju and proceed to Bokju and Emil-si, then possibly to the Maverican border.
This plan was ambitious for the time, given Menghe's limited economic resources and the challenging terrain on the coastal route. Only two sections were completed by the time of Sim's ousting in 1980: one from Baekjin to Dongrŭng, and one from Emil-si to Insŏng. Portions of the Dongrŭng-Hyangchun section were under construction, though the rough terrain had led to deadly accidents and landslides.
Though the DPRM had experienced a reasonably fast rebound in growth after the devastation of the wartime years, incomes remained very low across the country, and car ownership extremely scarce. Private automobiles were effectively limited to members of the Communist Party, and even then they were subject to a long wait list. At all times of day, the lanes were eerily empty save for government cars, cargo trucks, and sometimes columns of military vehicles. Large stretches of both highway routes lacked roadside petrol stations, forcing drivers to either fill the tank before leaving or barter for fuel at a factory along the way. The network was also merely limited-access, with intersections (many manned by traffic police), at-grade rail crossings, and many pedestrian and animal crossings, most of them improvised.
Ryŏ Ho-jun halted funding for the highway program shortly after coming to power, and purged the heads of the Ministry of Public Transportation, who were part of Sim's ousted faction. In 1984 Ryŏ took this agenda one step further, sending work teams to tear up large sections of the Baekjin-Anchŏn highway so that any invading force from Dayashina would have to contend with the same poor infrastructure that had existed in the War of Liberation. This proved immensely disruptive to industry in the northeastern region, especially after landslides undermined several of the dirt roads intended as replacements.
Reform era and beyond
Following the Decembrist Revolution of 1987, the Interim Council for National Restoration decisively shifted its priorities to economic reform and modernization. The new government's first Minister of Public Transportation, Yun Gi-ha, was formerly involved in planning Sim Jin-hwan's highway system, and immediately expressed interest in reviving the project. Choe Sŭng-min supported Yun's approach, believing that improved infrastructure wound open the way for rapid growth and revitalize the ailing economy.
Yun's long-term proposal for a national expressway network drew on plans that stretched back to the 1970s, but called for true controlled-access motorways, and relied on more modern interchange designs. It also placed greater priority on linking inland manufacturing regions to coastal trade ports, a major priority for the reformist government. The first expressway to begin construction was a 162-kilometer stretch between Insŏng and Sunju, which included a 2.4-kilometer bridge over the Ro river at Sohŭng. Work on this section began on 23 December 1988, but it was not opened until 6 July 1995 due to delays in building the bridge itself. A simpler 83-kilometer section linking Chanam to Myŏng'an began construction in February 1989 and opened in November 1992, making it Menghe's first operational expressway. This section steadily expanded to Onju (1994), Chŏnjin (1995), Sangha (1997), and Hwasŏng (1998), at which point it totaled over 550 kilometers. To simplify construction, it remained on the east bank of the Meng river for its entire course, using existing road-rail bridges at Chŏnjin and Hwasŏng to link traffic from the other side. Work on the east coast line proceeded more slowly, hindered by mountainous terrain, but engineers used repair work on sections sabotaged under the Ryŏ regime to repurpose existing highway sections into controlled-access roads with higher design speeds and added lanes. An expressway linking Songrimsŏng and Baekjin began construction in 1995, but work on its terminal bridge over the White River to Polvokia was suspended between 1997 and 2002 due to instability surrounding the Polvokian Civil War.
Many of these early expressway projects, built on accelerated timetables with limited oversight, were sometimes marred by political interference and hasty construction. Labor rights were also weak, with frequent complaints about undocumented overtime, missing back pay, and safety code violations. Corruption was a persistent issue, with city officials skimming money off of construction contracts and bribing inspectors for expedited approval. After a hillside section of G03 collapsed during heavy rain in 2000, killing thirty-four drivers and passengers, the Ministry of Public Transport launched a comprehensive crackdown on corruption and code violations in the expressway system, though less severe problems, especially in labor rights, persist to the present day.
As the years passed, Menghe developed a very competent road infrastructure industry, with experience and equipment from one project carried on to the next. Competitive bidding in place of SOE contracts helped drive down costs, as did efforts to root out corruption, and before long the education system was producing large numbers of skilled civil engineers. The Ministry of Public Transportation's goals expanded in tandem. A policy document issued in 2004 laid out a plan for a "national trunk road grid" linking all cities with a population above 500,000 before 2020, while adding additional bypass sections to lighten traffic in densely populated areas.
Terminology
Since 1992, Menghean law has distinguished between two categories of high-volume motorway. The uppermost category is known in Menghean as Gansŏndoro (간선도로 / 幹線道路), "trunk roads," or more formally Gansŏn gosok gukdo (간선 고속 국도 / 幹線高速國道), "national high-speed trunk roads." Depending on Anglian terminology, they are akin to expressways, motorways, or freeways, in that they have no intersections, stoplights, at-grade crossings, or direct property access.
The next category down consists of Jisŏndoro (지선도로 / 支線道路), "branch roads" or "feeder roads"), or more formally Jisŏn gukdo (national branch roads). These have some intersections and at-grade crossings, and may feature direct access to property, though not as frequently as local roads and streets. They also feature different signage and numbering rules, and generally do not include tolls.
Generally, Anglian-language literature from Menghe refers to Gansŏndoro as either "trunk roads" or "expressways," and Jisŏndoro as either "branch roads" or "highways." Neither translation is official, though, and a confusing array of other versions exist, including "main roads," "branch highways," "general roads," and so on.
Regulations
Speed limits
Most expressways in Menghe have a maximum speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour). In tunnels or winding sections with a lower design speed, this may be reduced to as low as 80 km/h (50 mph) for driver safety. The fastest section on the entire network lies on a long, straight stretch of the Sunju-Insŏng segment, where the speed limit rises to 150 km/h (93 mph).
Minimum speed limits of 80 km/h (50 mph) are also enforced on 120-km/h-and-above sections, and in some areas the passing lane has a minimum speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph). Minimum speed limits are enforced by traffic police.
Menghean expressway law also requires a three-second following distance between cars, which translates into 100-meter spacing at 120 kilometers per hour. Like the minimum speed rule, the spacing rule is relaxed during heavy traffic, but enforced by police when traffic is flowing.
Vehicle types
As per standard motorway terminology, only powered vehicles are allowed on Menghean expressways. Pedestrians, bicycles, and animal-drawn carts (still present in some rural areas) are not permitted. Vehicles unable to reach the minimum speed limit of a section of expressway, such as tractors and construction vehicles, are also denied access, except for construction or repair work on the expressway itself.
A national law passed in 2008 outlaws the use of motorcycles, mopeds, and three-wheeled vehicles on expressways, though not on limited-access highways, citing concerns over safety and visibility to other drivers. Police and military motorcycles are exempted.
Signage
Numbering scheme
Menghean expressway numbers begin with the Sinmun component ㄱ, or "G", for gansŏndoro. This contrasts with the prefix ㅈ ("J") for jisŏndoro. When read aloud, the prefixes are generally pronounced gan and ji respectively, rather than giŭk and jiŭt.
Expressway shields use a rectangular box with a red bar running across the top, while highway shields use a rectangular box with a yellow bar. Since 2009, the bars have contained the Anglian words "Trunk" and "Branch" respectively.
All expressways use a base designation composed of a two-digit number, e.g., ㄱ06 or ㄱ55. On the first few expressways, the number reflected the order in which the expressway project had been approved by the Ministry of Public Transportation; in 2003, a new scheme was imposed, with even leading digits for north-south expressways and odd leading digits for east-west expressways.
Ring roads surrounding cities add 0x to the end of the expressway number, with x denoting the ring road's order from the center of the city. Connections add yx, where y is an odd number, and supporting sections running parallel to an expressway use zx, where z is an even number from 2 upward.