The Korea Expressway Corporation has developed a technology to melt snow on highways using geothermal heat.

This technology heats up water to 30 degrees Celsius before it is pumped through pipes buried five centimeters under the surface of the road.

The supply of the warm water will raise the temperature of the road surface to five degrees centigrade to fend off ice accumulation.

The expressway corporation says that despite the costs associated with retrofitting roads, the geothermal method will be more cost-effective as the technology uses only one-quarter the amount of electricity used by the conventional method, which uses electrical lines.

The corporation will introduce and commercialize the geothermal technology for use on sloping roads, overpasses and around tunnel entrances this year at the earliest.