▲ The Gyeongbu Expressway in southern Seoul is packed with vehicles on Feb. 18, 2026, the final day of this year's Lunar New Year holiday. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) holiday-traffic

(LEAD) Highways congested on final day of Lunar New Year holiday

(ATTN: UPDATES figures throughout; CHANGES headline and photo)

SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Yonhap) -- Major expressways nationwide were congested Wednesday, as people returned home on the final day of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The nation marked the major holiday, known as Seol, the previous day, with the holiday period beginning over the weekend and running through Wednesday.

Traffic congestion was severe on some stretches of the Gyeongbu Expressway, which connects Seoul with the southeastern city of Busan, with vehicles frequently coming to a standstill.

As of 5 p.m., travel time from Seoul was estimated at five hours to Busan, four hours to Daegu and two hours and 20 minutes to Daejeon, according to the Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC).

The KEC said traffic heading into Seoul was expected to begin easing between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., while outbound routes from the capital were experiencing no major congestion.

An estimated 4.85 million vehicles were expected to use roads nationwide on Wednesday, including about 350,000 cars departing the greater Seoul area and 490,000 vehicles heading toward the capital from other regions.

The previous day, approximately 6.15 million vehicles traveled on highways nationwide.

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