Long Bien Bridge is banned

Long Bien Bridge no longer has traffic

This afternoon, the Red River flood reached the first alarm level of 9.5 meters (the highest level is alarm level three). The flood has not reached this high since 2008. With this ban, pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes, and three-wheelers are not allowed to cross the bridge connecting Hoan Kiem district with Long Bien.

At 9am the same day, the railway industry stopped trains running through Long Bien bridge, meaning 5-6 pairs of trains would have to stop.

Also this morning, the Hanoi Department of Transport banned passenger vans, contract vans, tourist cars with more than 9 seats, and trucks over 0.5 tons from running on Chuong Duong Bridge across the Red River from 8:30 a.m. due to safety concerns.

Currently, to move across the Red River, heavy-duty vehicles can only go through Thang Long, Nhat Tan, Vinh Tuy, and Thanh Tri bridges.

A day ago, Phong Chau bridge over the Red River on Highway 32C connecting Lam Thao and Tam Nong districts of Phu Tho collapsed, washing away two steel spans. Currently, 3 people have been rescued, but many are still missing.

Authorities put up fences and signs prohibiting access to Long Bien bridge.

Long Bien Bridge across the Red River, started in September 1898, designed by Daydé-Pillié (France) and inaugurated in 1902. The bridge is 1,691 m long, originally a steel truss bridge, with a railway running in the middle and two sides for road vehicles. During the war, some spans of the bridge were damaged, the State temporarily reinforced them with technical beam systems. During the period 1995-2010, Long Bien Bridge was reinforced and repaired with a total investment of 116 billion VND.

In 2015, Long Bien Bridge was comprehensively repaired with a total investment of nearly 300 billion VND, with the goal of safe operation until 2020 when the Yen Vien - Ngoc Hoi urban railway project No. 1 was implemented, replacing Long Bien Bridge. However, the urban railway project No. 1 was handed over by the Ministry of Transport to Hanoi for implementation, and has not yet been started.

In 2021, Vietnam Railways Corporation has adjusted the budget, focusing on urgent repairs and reinforcement of pedestrian walkways on Long Bien Bridge such as replacing panels, reinforcing, and painting railings. The maintenance budget for Long Bien Bridge last year was 8.5 billion VND, in 2022 it is more than 9.7 billion VND including the maintenance budget for railway bridges, road bridges and bridge patrols.

TH (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/cam-cau-long-bien-392658.html