Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh Expressway at risk of being behind schedule due to land acquisition problems

After more than 2 months of construction, the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway expansion project is facing the risk of being behind schedule due to the lack of a "clean" site for synchronous implementation, even though this is an urgent project that the Prime Minister requested to be basically completed by the end of 2026.

The Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway expansion project passes through Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province. However, the section through Ho Chi Minh City still has many surrounding houses that have not been cleared, so the investor cannot construct on land.

The Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway expansion project is about 22km long, passing through Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province, with a total investment of more than 15,000 billion VND, including two packages XL1 and XL2, invested by Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC).

The project started on August 19, 2025 and is expected to be basically completed in December 2026 to meet increasing traffic demand, especially when Long Thanh International Airport enters phase 1 of operation.

Workers are busy constructing on the river to hand over on schedule and waiting for the ground level to start construction.

However, according to the reporter's records, after more than 2 months of construction, both packages are behind schedule compared to the plan. Currently, package XL1 has reached about 80%, while package XL2 has only reached nearly 40%. At the construction site, construction activities are mainly concentrated in the Long Thanh bridge area, while many sections from Km4+00 to Km25+920 are being constructed sporadically and at a standstill due to the lack of a "clean" site for synchronous construction.

According to the XL1 package, the contractor mobilized about 650 personnel and 120 pieces of machinery. However, most of the machinery had to be gathered on site and could not be constructed because the handed-over site had just been completed in phase 1, and was only 5-6m wide. To achieve the design scale of 8-10 lanes, the construction corridor needed to be 17-20m wide. The lack of space significantly slowed down the progress of pile drilling, foundation construction and approach bridges.

Many locations from M1 pier to T20 pier still have no land. There is no access road for T130 to T142 pier, so the contractor has brought equipment to the project for nearly 2 months but still cannot operate. For the 7.25m viaduct section, each pier can only construct 2/4 piles due to uncleared land. As for the 11m expansion section (to reach 10 lanes), only about 70% of the land has been received, so the bridge piers can only construct 3/5 piles.

The highway section through Ho Chi Minh City still has houses that have not been cleared.

In the XL2 package in Dong Nai province, more than 230 personnel and nearly 100 pieces of equipment have been mobilized. The contractor is organizing cleaning, clearing the site, making service roads, drilling test piles and bored piles. However, the construction work still faces many obstacles due to the lack of complete construction drawings for the items of relocating power lines and bridge structures. Therefore, the contractor does not have enough technical basis to deploy simultaneously.

The project is implemented in the form of an emergency project, both design and construction. The design is divided into two steps: basic design and construction drawing design. In which, the construction drawing design is chaired by VEC. However, the appraisal and approval of construction drawing design is currently slow, not meeting the required progress of the contractor on the site.

The representative of the contractor for the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway expansion project said that the unit has focused a lot of human resources and equipment on the construction site but does not have a complete site and design documents for implementation. If this situation continues, the progress of the entire project will continue to be affected, not to mention that every day the unit has to spend a lot of money on maintenance and upkeep of machinery at the construction site and monthly salaries for workers.

At the construction site, construction activities are mainly concentrated in the Long Thanh bridge area, while many sections from Km4+00 to Km25+920 are being constructed sporadically and at a standstill due to the lack of a synchronous construction site.

Regarding the above project, Mr. Nguyen Kien Giang , Deputy Head of the Department of Traffic Works Maintenance and Operation Management, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, said that the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway expansion project has two sections, one section under the management of Ho Chi Minh City and one section under Dong Nai province.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the Vo Chi Cong access road will start construction in early November. This area is not facing any clearance issues because the compensation and site clearance work in phase 1 has been completed and the site is ready. However, the section from the highway from the beginning of the Vo Chi Cong access road to Dong Nai, invested by VEC, has all the machinery and human resources and is actively clearing the site early to allow contractors to start construction.

Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh Expressway is a vital traffic route connecting the country’s largest economic center with the Southeast region and Long Thanh airport.

According to traffic experts, the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh Expressway expansion project is a vital traffic route connecting the country’s largest economic center with the Southeast region and Long Thanh airport. If progress is delayed, not only will traffic congestion continue to increase, but it will also affect the regional infrastructure development strategy.

To get the project back on track, experts believe that it is necessary to speed up the site clearance and compensation work in Dong Nai; VEC urgently completes and hands over construction drawings; contractors work overtime when there is enough land to make up for the progress. In particular, the decisive solution is still a clean site - a prerequisite for the project to move from "waiting" to "doing".

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/van-de-quan-tam/cao-toc-tp-ho-chi-minh-long-thanh-co-nguy-co-cham-tien-do-do-vuong-mat-bang-20251025165203155.htm