Incheon Bridge on Tuesday won an award in the mega-sized construction project category at the Project Excellence Award 2015 held in Panama, the operator of the bridge said Tuesday.
Incheon Bridge was named the Premium Gold Winner, beating out GE’s oil and gas project in Italy, Alstom’s power project in Switzerland and Sberbank’s internal control system in Russia and Eastern Europe.
This marks the first time for the annual awards to grant the “premium gold” medal, which is regarded to be higher than the sequence of gold, silver and bronze medals.
Incheon Bridge. Incheon Bridge Corp
The awards come from the International Project Management Association, a leading Swiss-registered nonprofit organization, which reviewed large-scale projects from more than 20 countries for five months and narrowed down the candidates.
“Incheon Bridge received a record score that surpasses those of gold, silver and bronze medals. This is the first time that we have ‘premium gold’ prize in the 50 years of the IPMA history,” Erik Mansson, chairman of the IPMA Award Management Board said in a statement Thursday.
“The bridge encompasses sustainability in that it came up with an idea to stretch to North Korea (in case of the two Koreas’ reunification),” Mansson added.
Incheon Bridge Corp. CEO Kim Soo-hong poses after being named the Premium Gold Winner at the Project Excellence Award 2015 held in Panama on Tuesday. Incheon Bridge Corp.
Kim Soo-hong, CEO of Incheon Bridge Corp., attributed the award to the “philosophical approach” in designing and building the bridge.
“The Incheon Bridge project was a continuation of challenges and innovation,” Kim said during the ceremony. “The achievement is the result of Incheon city and shareholders’ efforts. We wouldn’t have achieved this milestone if not for the central government’s decision on promoting innovative system.”
Incheon Bridge is regarded as one of the largest public-private joint venture projects in South Korea with a 2.5 trillion won ($2.12 billion) investment. Opened in October 2009, it has won at least 120 awards in the country and abroad for its planning, technology, finance and business development.
The IPMA was established in 1965 as the world’s first project management entity with registered members from 55 countries.
By Suk Gee-hyun and Lee Hong-seok (
monicasuk@heraldcorp.com) (
gilbert@heraldcorp.com)
