The Korea Gas Corp. has embarked on its construction of a new undersea tunnel connecting Geojedo Island to Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, as part of its project to expand natural gas supplies delivered from the mainland to Geoje.

The tunnel, to be built roughly 100 meters below the seabed, will house a 7.8-kilometer pipeline that will carry natural gas from Jinhae, a district in Changwon City, to the island.

The gas company began drilling a 4.3 kilometer-long tunnel in Geoje bound for Jinhae on March 31. Later this year, the KGC is scheduled to begin building a 3.5 kilometer-long tunnel starting from Jinhae. By 2017, the two tunnels will connect to form a 7.8 kilometer-long tunnel between the two points.

According to the KGC, this new delivery route is expected to help alleviate rising demands for natural gas in Geoje during winter, in addition to another pipeline coming from Tongyeong that was built last year to carry natural gas to the island.

The Geoje-Jinhae undersea tunnel will be constructed using an automated tunnel boring machine, equipped with a circular plate on one end that can slice through hard rocks and a variety of soil types.

When completed, the pipeline will become the longest undersea tunnel built using a TBM in Korea, a potential milestone in the domestic tunnel construction sector.

After 2017, the KGC plans to connect the new undersea pipeline to preexisting land pipelines that pass through Tongyeong, Masan ― a district in Changwon ― and Gimhae to further address rising energy demands in the South Gyeongsang region.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)