Why River Sand from the Han River Was Sold to Construction Sites

Over a four-year period starting in 1982, 63.69 million cubic meters of sand and gravel disappeared from the bottom of the Han River. That's enough to fill a 500m x 500m area to the height of the 63 Building. It had to be dredged to stabilize the river channel, but there was nowhere to dump it and no money to transport it. So, it wasn't seen as waste soil but as a commodity to be sold. Salt-free river sand is highly valued in concrete, and at that time, Seoul was in the midst of a massive apartment construction boom. The 196.2 billion won earned from selling the aggregate covered one-fifth of the total construction costs.