Over 650 km of North Expressway

TPO – Despite the government and the Ministry of Transport having requested the completion of essential items to serve people during the year-end peak season, more than 650 km of expressways that have been open to traffic for over a year still lack standard rest and refueling stations.

Current status of the highway

The Mai Son – National Highway 45 and Nghi Son – Dien Chau expressways are two of the 11 expressway projects in the 2017-2021 period (phase 1) that opened in 2023. They have the highest traffic volume, and the land for constructing rest stops has been largely cleared by Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces, but currently, rest stops and refueling stations as required are still lacking.

The area for the rest stop on the Nghi Son – Dien Chau expressway is fenced off, but no rest buildings or fuel stations meeting standard requirements have been constructed.

Last weekend, while visiting the site of the rest stop project that had been cleared by the local authorities, a reporter from Tien Phong newspaper observed that most of the area remained an empty plot of land surrounded by fences. One corner of the site contained temporary shelters and mobile toilets erected by the highway project contractor to provide a temporary rest stop for people and vehicles traveling on the highway. The entire project site, spanning several hectares, had not yet been developed by the investor with the required rest stop and fuel station.

At the project site for the rest stop in Dong Hoa commune, Dong Son district, Thanh Hoa province, part of the Mai Son - National Highway 45 expressway project, reporters observed that the land cleared by Thanh Hoa province on both sides of the road, each side approximately 3 hectares wide, currently only has temporary shelters and mobile toilets. Due to the limited parking space at the temporary shelters, only 10 to 20 passenger cars can park, and only a few container trucks can be accommodated, thus severely restricting the number of vehicles entering and exiting.

Over the past weekend, at one point, this temporary rest stop had as many as seven container trucks stopping for drivers to drink water and use the restroom, resulting in the parking area being completely full with no space left for other vehicles.

Regarding the project site for the Nghi Son - Dien Chau expressway rest stop in Dien Hanh commune, Dien Chau district, Nghe An province, the site, approximately 3 hectares on each side, is currently vacant. A small portion of it consists of temporary shelters and mobile toilets erected by the project implementing unit a long time ago.

Highway rest stop continues to miss its deadline.

On January 14th, in an interview with Tien Phong newspaper, the leaders of Vietnam Expressway Operation and Maintenance Joint Stock Company (VEC O&M) – the unit managing and operating the North-South expressway section from Mai Son (Ninh Binh) to Dien Chau (Nghe An) – confirmed that the North-South expressway, which has just completed phase 1 from Ninh Binh to Nghe An (150 km long), has not yet had rest stops and refueling stations built to standard specifications.

The small, cramped rest stops along the North-South expressways are experiencing traffic congestion.

According to the plan, the first phase of the 11 North-South Expressway projects, running through the provinces of Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, and Dong Nai, with a total length of over 650 km, will have 10 rest and refueling stations to serve people and vehicles traveling on the expressway. However, at the time of opening (2023), the investors of the 11 projects (the Project Management Boards, Ministry of Transport) had only completed the road section with a width of 2 lanes, lacking emergency lanes and rest and refueling stations.

To ensure consistency and minimize risks associated with long journeys on highways without rest stops, in 2023-2024, the Government and the Ministry of Transport repeatedly requested relevant units to expedite the implementation of rest stop projects for which land had already been planned. With directives issued in mid-2024, the Ministry of Transport required that, before the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Snake, rest stops in projects where investors had already been secured must complete basic facilities such as rest areas and gas stations.

However, according to observations by Tien Phong reporters in recent days, eight rest stop projects on expressways that have already selected investors, including Mai Son – National Highway 45, Nghi Son – Dien Chau, Dien Chau – Bai Vot, and Cam Lam – Vinh Hao, have not yet been implemented.

Commenting on this matter, a representative from the Highway Department (Ministry of Transport) – the unit responsible for selecting investors to implement the temporary rest stop projects – stated that the current progress by investors is behind schedule due to delays in receiving land from local authorities, hindering the implementation of the rest stop projects. The Department is currently requiring the winning bidders to take over the land and infrastructure for the temporary rest stops and shelters in order to reorganize and rearrange them appropriately.

Reporters Team

Source: https://tienphong.vn/hon-650-km-cao-toc-bac-nam-van-trang-tram-dung-nghi-post1709484.tpo