Gov't to clean roads more frequently to reduce dust levels in air

In this Feb. 14 file photo, the Seoul city government's water-spraying truck cleans a road in central Seoul. The Ministry of Environment said Thursday that it will clean roads across the country more frequently to reduce dust levels in the air. Korea Times file

By Ko Dong-hwan

The Ministry of Environment said it will clean roads across the country more frequently to reduce dust levels in the air after a recent study showed that water-cleaning can cut the concentration of particulate matter in the air by more than 35 percent.

The ministry said it has confirmed the effectiveness of road cleaning that washes off dust particles that settle on road surfaces. The measure was implemented more intensively during a special air pollution monitoring season between early December 2020 and the end of March this year.

During that period, the ministry and 17 city and provincial governments nationwide cleaned the roads two times a day. On days when dust concentration levels were particularly high, the central government initiated emergency measures, including free rides on public transport to encourage more people to use the subway and buses and cleaning roads up to four times in a day.

The ministry selected roads to clean after searching for ones in the worst-affected areas based on traffic volume, dust concentration levels and population. A total of 387 sections of roads nationwide were designated ― including 86 roads in Gyeonggi Province, 53 roads in Seoul, 33 roads in South Gyeongsang Province and 28 roads in North Jeolla Province ― that altogether covered a distance of 1,946 kilometers.

In this Jan. 11, 2020, file photo, a dust-vacuuming truck cleans Dangsanro (road) in central Seoul. Yonhap

Cooperating with the Korea Environment Corporation, the ministry monitored concentration levels of particulate matters with 10 micrometers or less in length (PM10) in the 35 most-polluted sections of roads in Seoul, Incheon and surrounding Gyeonggi Province before and after the special cleaning. A specially designed van, which can calculate dust concentration levels, took readings based on samples.

The results showed that, before the cleaning, PM10 concentration levels on the roads averaged 158.5 microgram per cubic meter. After the cleaning, the figure was found to have dropped to 101.7.

"Since cleaning up roads has been found effective in reducing air pollution caused by dust across the country, we plan to expand the number of road cleaning vehicles and the designated road sections in the country that show relatively high concentration levels," said Kim Seung-hee, the ministry's Air Quality Policy Bureau official.

The ministry and local governments together deployed over the selected road sections a total of 1,661 road cleaning vehicles ― 982 brush and filter trucks, 267 dust vacuuming trucks and 412 water-spraying trucks.

Depending on temperatures and road conditions, authorities deployed a mix of different trucks to maximize the effect. On eight sections of the monitored roads where both brush and filter trucks and water-spraying trucks were deployed, the PM10 concentration level was reduced by 49 percent on average. On 12 sections that only used dust vacuuming trucks, 36.7 percent was reduced. On 15 sections where only brush and filter trucks were deployed, 27.8 percent was reduced.

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