Korea

Under the Office of the Secretary's (OST) initiative, FHWA has been cooperating with the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) in various technology exchange activities. Cooperative activities with MOCT are focused in three areas: participation in the U.S./Korea Roads Workshop, exchange of technical experts, and establishing a training program for Korean engineers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation signed an Implementing Agreement with Korea=s MOCT concerning cooperation in science and technology in June 1995.

The FHWA has hosted numerous Korean professionals in our offices of Structures, Pavements, and Safety as exchange research engineers, on an 18-month assignment focusing on areas of critical importance to both the MOCT and FHWA. The Korean government has been very satisfied by the quality of training afforded their engineers and highly support their implementation of technologies learned in the U.S. The FHWA has as well been extremely satisfied in the wealth of technical expertise and the knowledge gained all of which has been beneficial to the U.S. transportation community as a whole.

The MOCT implements many of the US Standards (e.g., they have translated the AASHTO Policy on Design Guidelines of Highways and Streets, as well as the FHWA Freeway Management Handbook and various SUPERPAVE booklets.)

• The implementation of US pavement/bridge technologies presents vibrant opportunities for US private sector.
• Lessons learned from the construction techniques employed on the Seohae Grand Bridge.
• They continue to be a major proponent and purchaser of US ITS technologies.
• The MOCT is very interested in expanding the technical expert exchanges to include researchers with the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center.

To date the FHWA and MOCT have cooperated in nine U.S./Korea Roads Workshops. The most recent was held in San Francisco U.S., July 2007. The tenth will be hosted by MOCT in 2008.

In light of the technology activities agreement, FHWA has cooperated with the MOCT in establishing the Korea Technology Transfer Center. This center is the clearinghouse of transportation-related technologies information.