600 billion VND coastal road project under construction at a standstill

The coastal road project through Cua Tung and Cua Viet bridges (Quang Tri province) is facing the risk of not being completed on schedule in 2025, as the road project is still almost "standing still" due to land clearance problems.

Land clearance "standstill"

The coastal road project through Cua Tung bridge and Cua Viet bridge was approved for adjustment by the People's Committee of Quang Tri province in Decision No. 2960/QD-UBND, dated December 9, 2024, with a total investment of 600 billion VND (central budget), implementation period 2024-2025. The Quang Tri Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board is the assigned investor. The project has a total length of 5.76 km, including two main sections: The section through Cua Tung bridge is about 3.16 km long (of which the bridge is 0.5 km long). The section through Cua Viet bridge is about 2.6 km long.

This is an important coastal traffic route, connecting the infrastructure of the Eastern region of Quang Tri province, and at the same time creating a driving force for economic development - marine tourism in the Cua Tung - Cua Viet area. The project passes through the area of ​​3 communes of Cua Tung, Ben Hai and Nam Cua Viet, affecting 305 households with 470 plots of land and 312 graves that need to be relocated.

According to the Quang Tri Province Construction Investment Project Management Board, the announcement of land reclamation has been completed, but the work of inventorying and determining the origin of land is still slow, especially in the two communes of Ben Hai and Nam Cua Viet, where the verification of the origin of land use has not been completed and specific land prices have not been issued (as of October 20). This makes it impossible to approve compensation, support and resettlement plans.

In addition, six resettlement areas planned to serve the project (including a cemetery resettlement area in Nam Cua Viet commune) have yet to be detailed planned or invested in on the ground. As a result, as of October 20, only about 0.7 km out of a total of 5.76 km of the route has been handed over, mainly the underwater part of Cua Tung bridge and Ha Tay bridge.

“The biggest problem at present is compensation for aquaculture households. People believe that the compensation price according to Decision No. 14/2024/QD-UBND, dated August 14, 2024 of the province is not suitable to reality, lower than the market price, leading to complaints and disagreement on land handover. The Project Management Board has proposed that the province allow the application of the price according to Decision 660/QD-UBND, dated April 6, 2023 to compensate for aquaculture machinery and equipment, but so far there has been no response,” said a representative of the Quang Tri Provincial Construction Investment Project Management Board.

Mr. Vo Duc Dien, Chairman of the People's Committee of Cua Tung commune, informed that the locality has basically completed the determination of land origin and is continuing to review and inventory the remaining plots to soon submit to the authorities.

Construction at a standstill

At the project, the construction contract for the construction package was signed on June 27, 2025, with a value of VND 346.2 billion, with an implementation period of 6 months (striving to complete before December 31, 2025).

The construction contractor consortium includes Construction Joint Stock Company 525 and Construction Joint Stock Company 207. However, due to lack of land, the construction units have only started the bridge section and have not been able to start the road section.

At Cua Tung Bridge, the contractor has completed the northern service road and poured concrete for 29/74 bored piles. At Ha Tay Bridge, the volume has only reached 6/48 reinforced concrete piles. The road section is still "frozen". The total value of the entire project has so far only reached 15.2 billion VND, equivalent to 4.4% of the contract value. Meanwhile, the total capital allocated for the project has reached 600 billion VND, of which the plan for 2025 is 591 billion VND, but in reality, only 114.39 billion VND has been disbursed, reaching 19.35%.

According to the Quang Tri Province Construction Investment Project Management Board, in addition to difficulties in site clearance, the organization of construction at the site also encountered many obstacles. The construction site area was narrow (due to the lack of clearance of the road area at both ends of the bridge - PV), the material transportation route had to utilize the left dike of Ben Hai, only allowing small trucks under 6 tons to circulate, causing the transportation of materials to take longer than planned.

At Ha Tay bridge, due to the lack of access roads due to the lack of land at both ends of the bridge, the construction unit must proactively work with the local authorities to rent temporary land to serve the casting of reinforced concrete test piles and precast components.

On the other hand, to fill the public road to serve the pile driving work, the contractor plans to take advantage of the coordinated land from the route section (Km41+271- Km42+060), but because this area has not been cleared, pile driving cannot be carried out yet.

Mr. Nguyen Phong Luan, Deputy Director of the Quang Tri Province Construction Investment Project Management Board, said: “In this situation, the Project Management Board has proposed that the Provincial People's Committee direct the communes of Cua Tung, Ben Hai and Nam Cua Viet to urgently complete the verification of land origin, approve specific land prices and implement the construction of resettlement areas. In the immediate future, priority should be given to clearing the land at both ends of Cua Tung and Ha Tay bridges to keep up with construction progress.”

Source: https://baodautu.vn/du-an-duong-ven-bien-600-ty-dong-thi-cong-cam-chung-d420356.html