By the end of this year, the piloting of sea sand will have results, so from now until 2024, the main source of leveling material will be river sand, according to the Ministry of Transport.
In the report just sent to the National Assembly on the results of questioning at the third session, the Ministry of Transport said that the specialized agency has tested sea sand samples taken in Tra Vinh and Soc Trang to serve the North-South expressway project. The results show that the sea sand here meets the basic physico-mechanical criteria, meeting the requirements for road embankment sand.
The ministry has piloted the use of sea sand on route DT978 of the Hau Giang - Ca Mau component project, which is expected to be completed in May. The specialized agency will monitor until November, the fastest until the end of the year, can determine the ability to meet the technical requirements of sea sand.
"So, in the immediate future in 2023 and 2024, the source of leveling materials for highway projects will still be mainly river sand," the report stated.
According to the survey on sea sand reserves, Tra Vinh province has licensed to exploit a mine with 1,1 million m3, with a mining capacity of 0,4 million m3/year. In addition, three mine sites are being planned. In which, the largest reserves are mines in Soc Trang province with a scale of 13,9 billion m3, located 40 km from the coast and two mines in Tra Vinh with 2,1 million m3.
The main highway Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet at the section through Ham Thuan Bac district (Binh Thuan). Image: Viet Quoc
Along with the experiment conducted by the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Science and Technology has approved and implemented the national science and technology task "Research on using saline sand as materials for leveling and embankment". Research is in the room stage, starting to move into the field.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is also studying the potential of sea sand exploitation to meet the demand for leveling for traffic and urban projects in the Mekong Delta on the sea area located 10-25 km from the shore, with a depth of 10-30 m. The project implementation results will clarify the quality, potential of sea sand and exploitation capacity to meet the scarce source of filling materials at present.
The pilot project of using sea sand to fill the roadbed was launched in the context of a series of expressway projects being implemented, but there was a lack of backfilling materials. In the West, two expressways projects Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang and Can Tho - Ca Mau need about 40 million m3 of sand, but the material resources in the region cannot meet.
Answer VnExpress Previously, Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen, Deputy General Department of Geology and Minerals, said that the legal corridor and planning were incomplete, leading to the slow or impossible units to explore and exploit sea sand. In addition, the extracted sea sand cannot be used because there is no system of standards and regulations for each field such as making concrete or leveling.
Mr. Nguyen said the unit is urgently developing a circular on technical regulations on investigation and assessment of sea sand, and submit it to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
