Slow handover of site
The Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway expansion project is determined by the Ministry of Construction to require approximately 11.99 hectares of land for implementation. Of which, Ho Chi Minh City needs 7.85 hectares and Dong Nai province needs 4.14 hectares. However, more than 3 months have passed since the commencement of construction, and localities have yet to complete the site clearance work as planned.
In particular, Ho Chi Minh City has not yet finalized a compensation plan, nor has it had a specific plan and time to hand over the cleared site to the construction contractor. Specifically, right after the groundbreaking ceremony on August 19, at the construction site to expand the existing Long Thanh bridge from 4 to 8 lanes, the contractor mobilized nearly hundreds of personnel and machinery and equipment to organize the construction.
However, Ho Chi Minh City has only handed over the site within the boundary cleared in phase 1, with a width of about 5-6m. With such a narrow area, the contractor can only construct a part of the bored piles of the viaduct piers, not ensuring the conditions for completing the construction of the bridge pier foundation structure. Meanwhile, to construct the boundary of phase 2, the corridor width is required from 10-15m.
In addition, the land area that needs to be cleared for the construction of the approach bridge when expanding Long Thanh bridge (in Long Truong ward, Long Phuoc ward) is about 7.85 hectares, Ho Chi Minh City side is still at a standstill, the compensation, support and resettlement work has only stopped at the milestone handover step, not yet implemented in the field. The relocation of technical infrastructure is still in the process of unifying the plan, there is no specific time plan for handover to the contractor.
According to residents living at the foot of Long Thanh Bridge, the slow progress of the project is causing them to fall into a situation of “not being able to leave, not being able to stay”. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai, a household subject to clearance living in Long Phuoc Ward, said that up to now, her family has not received any official notice from the Long Phuoc Ward authorities, Ho Chi Minh City about the compensation price or the time of relocation.
In the most recent meeting, the local government informed that compensation and site clearance would not be completed until March 2026. This has disrupted the lives of local residents, while their houses are in disrepair and they dare not repair them, their businesses are affected, and their new place of residence is still unclear.
According to a transport infrastructure expert, the delay in site clearance in Ho Chi Minh City is creating a “bottleneck” that directly affects the entire expressway expansion project. The bid packages can only be implemented synchronously when the clean site is handed over on time, so any delay will lead to the risk of cost overruns, construction interruptions and delay in the overall completion date. If this stage is not accelerated, the pressure on the progress of the entire project will increase, even affecting the ability to connect the regions as planned.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, there are currently two projects being implemented in parallel. The first is the project to build a road connecting An Phu intersection to Ring Road 2, invested by the City Transport Department, expanding from 4 to 8 lanes within the cleared land; construction is expected to start before November 5, 2025 under the direction of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
The second is the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway main line expansion project implemented by the Vietnam Expressway Corporation, with a scale of 8 - 10 lanes and including compensation, support and resettlement for local people. Currently, the City Compensation and Site Clearance Board is also implementing the project on schedule to ensure the project's requirements.
Dong Nai is optimistic about site clearance
In contrast to the sluggish land clearance situation in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai has shown more positive progress in land clearance. To serve the construction, Dong Nai province had to reclaim more than 4 hectares with 394 plots of land in Nhon Trach, Long Thanh and An Phuoc communes.
According to the Dong Nai Province Land Fund Development Center, this project has 13km passing through Dong Nai province. The locality has completed the work of surveying and mapping the land acquisition and handed over the land acquisition map, technical documents of the land plots and provided cadastral information of the recovered land plots under the project to the units to perform the tasks.
At the same time, the unit has carried out the counting, compensating, supporting and resettlement records for 140 plots of land with an area of nearly 1.6 hectares; reaching more than 35% of the plots of land within the project scope; in addition, it has also implemented specific land valuation work, worked with consulting units, provided records and implemented.
Regarding the settlement of resettlement for households, the representative of the Long Thanh branch of the Land Fund Development Center said that the whole commune has 27 households with houses that have been counted, the unit has also transferred the list of households with houses on land to the Long Thanh Commune People's Committee to prepare a file to consider and resolve resettlement arrangements according to regulations. This locality has also announced that it is expected to complete and hand over the entire project site to the investor in December 2025.
The representative of the contractor for the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway said that, with the current difficulties in site clearance, the contractor is having to bear increased costs due to the long wait for the personnel and equipment mobilized to be stopped to wait for the site handover. Moreover, there is a risk that the project will not be completed on schedule according to the Government's direction and the signed contract between the Investor and the Contractor.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh Expressway project is not only a traffic project but also an important strategic link, ensuring synchronous traffic connection after Long Thanh Airport comes into operation. Therefore, local authorities, especially Ho Chi Minh City, need to increase their attention and direct strongly, requiring communes and wards where the project passes to focus on speeding up site clearance procedures, promptly handing over clean site to the construction contractor in 2025, ensuring the project's completion schedule in December 2026 according to the Prime Minister's direction.
Source: https://baotintuc.vn/van-de-quan-tam/cao-toc-tp-ho-chi-minh-long-thanh-nguy-co-cham-tien-do-vi-ban-giao-mat-bang-20251126204504400.htm
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