Repairing rural traffic damaged by natural disasters

Since the beginning of the year, the province has been continuously affected by heavy rain and storms, especially storms No. 9 and No. 10, causing severe damage to rural traffic infrastructure. Although localities have proactively implemented many response measures, mobilized forces and means to temporarily fix the problem and ensure initial traffic, long-term repair and restoration still face many difficulties, especially in newly merged communes where budget conditions and resources are limited.

The road to Con Moong cave (Thanh Vinh commune) has suffered severe landslides and needs to be repaired soon.

In Thanh Vinh commune, storms and floods in September and October have caused serious damage to the rural transport system. In particular, the road to Con Moong cave - a special national heritage and an important local tourist destination - suffered serious landslides. According to actual records, this road has one positive slope landslide with a length of about 120m and three negative slope landslides with a total length of 435m. At many points, the landslide edge has encroached into half of the road surface, in some places the concrete part of the road surface no longer has the underlying soil layer due to being washed away by water, posing a potential risk to traffic safety. This is an important route serving the travel needs of people and tourists, now it is cut off...

Through the review of Thanh Vinh commune, since the beginning of the year, heavy rains and floods have caused serious landslides in many locations of the rural road system in the area, making it difficult for people to travel. The road from Tay Huong village to Thanh Tan village has a 95m long negative slope landslide, the road is located close to the stream, the height difference between the road surface and the stream bed is from 10 to 15m. Heavy rains cause the slope to collapse deeply, washing away the foundation, the road bed is cracked, and in some places it is completely broken, making it difficult for people to travel and potentially dangerous. Muc Long village road has a landslide along Ho Binh Cong stream with a length of about 80m, the road surface is gouged from 1 to 2m deep, every time there is heavy rain, it continues to collapse...

Faced with this situation, Thanh Vinh commune has proactively organized a standing force to closely monitor the landslide situation, while placing warning signs, barricading dangerous areas and informing people not to enter areas at risk of landslides. Thanh Vinh commune has also prepared a detailed report to the superior agencies to propose a plan to support funding for the repair. Mr. Bui Thanh Hieu, Head of the Economic Department, Thanh Vinh Commune People's Committee, said: "The locality has compiled and reported to the Department of Construction on the damage situation, proposed a list of urgent works affected by the storms in 2025, including 3 main roads with serious landslides. In the context of limited budget, the locality hopes that all levels and sectors will pay attention and provide financial support to promptly repair, ensure safety for people and create favorable conditions for travel".

Due to the consecutive impacts of storms in 2025, in the communes of Nhu Thanh, Ba Thuoc, Quan Son, Quan Hoa, Yen Nhan, Bat Mot... many roads to schools and residential areas were severely damaged but could not be repaired, people had to temporarily travel on subsided dirt roads, many sections were only wide enough for motorbikes to move. Some localities proactively repaired the damage by dumping boulders and earth, but after only a few heavy rains, the roads were washed away again. According to the synthesis of the transport sector, the recent storm No. 10 alone caused severe damage over a large area with 274 landslides on rural roads, with a total volume of earth and rock of more than 57,770m3. In addition, the whole province had 15 people's bridges and temporary bridges washed away; 25 overflow roads and overflow tunnels were seriously damaged, many inter-village and inter-commune roads were paralyzed, greatly affecting the transportation of goods, agricultural products and travel of students and people in remote areas. After the storm passed, localities urgently mobilized machinery, vehicles and shock troops to clear soil and rocks, temporarily open roads, and ensure traffic as soon as possible. However, due to limited funding, the repair work was mainly temporary.

In reality, the biggest difficulty facing post-merger communes is the lack of resources to invest in and repair transport infrastructure. Meanwhile, the transport system is mainly small, narrow rural roads, invested long ago by capital sources for new rural development or contributions from the people, so when severely damaged by natural disasters, the repair requires a large amount of capital, beyond the capacity of the locality.

In that situation, in the context of new communes and wards still having difficulties, the province hopes to soon have solutions to support the repair of roads heavily affected by natural disasters. In addition to capital from the budget, it is necessary to integrate national target programs on new rural construction, sustainable poverty reduction, and natural disaster prevention to arrange funds for repair. At the same time, encourage businesses, organizations, and individuals to participate in contributing and supporting localities to repair and upgrade key roads, ensure traffic safety, and create conditions for socio-economic development.

Article and photos: Le Hoi

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/khac-phuc-giao-thong-nong-thon-nbsp-bi-thiet-hai-do-thien-tai-268195.htm