A series of recent expressway projects have "reached the finish line spectacularly" under extremely challenging construction conditions and unprecedented circumstances.
The inauguration of two important sections of the North-South expressway on April 30th (the Mai Son - National Highway 45 section and the Phan Thiet - Dau Giay section, with a total length of over 162km) has contributed to realizing the dream of an expressway connecting the two ends of the country.
This also represents a victory for the spirit of "overcoming the sun and rain" to bring key transportation projects to completion, as committed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh , which is: "What is said must be done, what is committed must be implemented, and what is implemented must yield concrete results."
Observing the construction site of the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi section of the North-South Expressway Eastern section, phase 2021-2025 (implemented by the joint venture of Vinaconex Corporation and General Corporation 319 of the Ministry of National Defense ), we clearly felt the bustling and determined atmosphere of hundreds of workers directly involved in the work.
Mr. Pham The Cong (Director of Vinaconex's Executive Board), with over 20 years of experience in constructing key transportation projects across the country, shared that he has never seen such a determined work ethic in bringing transportation projects ahead of schedule as he does now.
Of the total 35km of the Ham Nghi – Bai Vot route, Vinaconex directly constructed 22.35km from Bai Vot to the end of Can Loc district. This section has a simple structure but passes through an area with weak soil, requiring extensive geological and technical treatment.
Due to the harsh weather conditions in Central Vietnam, especially during hot weather, Mr. Cong said that construction work on the site usually starts from 4 am to 10 am, then continues from 2 pm to 10 pm. During peak periods, workers may carry out construction work throughout the night, holidays, and Tet (Lunar New Year) with a "three shifts, four teams" mentality, and "if day work isn't enough, we'll work at night."
“The number of Vinaconex staff and workers on the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi route construction site currently stands at over 700 people (20-30% are local personnel), divided into 15 bridge construction teams and 15 road construction teams; with nearly 400 vehicles, motorbikes, and equipment… to work in shifts continuously, aiming to bring the project to completion as soon as possible,” Mr. Cong said.
At the time of signing the project acceptance contract on the first day of 2023, Mr. Cong stated that all stages and procedures, from design and bidding to direct awarding of the contract, were completed in a very short time.
Although the project was initially stalled due to a lack of materials and land clearance mechanisms, with decisive direction from the Prime Minister , ministries, sectors, and localities mobilized all resources and employed various mechanisms to thoroughly resolve these obstacles.
"Having resolved these bottlenecks, the project has continuously gained momentum after months of inactivity," Mr. Cong recounted, adding that currently 95-99% of the earth fill and sand have been secured, and the entire project has reached over 70% of its volume.
According to Mr. Cong, previously, obtaining land, sand, and construction materials for the expressway required approximately six months of bidding and tendering procedures. However, due to the urgency of the project, as early as April 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed the elimination of all administrative procedures, and the materials were specifically allocated for expressway construction, thus shortening the time by 6-7 months.
Currently, material quarries are directly managed, exploited, and operated by contractors with the commitment that they "can only be used for the highway project."
According to the contract, the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi route was scheduled for completion by September 30, 2025. Subsequently, the Prime Minister requested a further three-month reduction in construction time. However, during the latest progress inspection, government leaders requested a further reduction in the timeline, aiming to complete the project by April 30, 2025, six months ahead of the original schedule.
To realize this, Vinaconex and the investor are determined to accelerate progress, taking advantage of all favorable factors to shorten construction time while still ensuring efficiency in terms of investment environment and economy.
The number of construction machinery mobilized was immediately increased by 1.5 times, with over 500 machines and pieces of equipment. The workforce, instead of the planned 500-600, was also increased to over 700 people, divided into teams working both day and night.
"Although the April 30th deadline is very stressful, we can strive to bring the project to completion," Mr. Cong said, adding that all the workers on the construction site and in the office are responding to the determination conveyed by the head of the Government.
According to Mr. Cong, workers who work overtime receive increased pay, meals are provided, and they are given full benefits. Everyone is enthusiastically working on the project, unlike during the subsidy era when they had to wait for the bell to ring before starting work.
With a spirit of working through holidays and Tet (Lunar New Year), he said that during the 4-day holiday on September 2nd, to take advantage of favorable weather, the unit mobilized 100% of its workforce to stay and continue construction.
Mr. Le Van Quyet (the officer in charge of construction of the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi expressway section passing through Quang Loc, Trung Loc and Xuan Loc communes) also said that for the past few months, machinery and manpower have been increased on the construction site to be able to complete the project basically before the rainy season.
To date, 95% of the embankment has been completed, and 40% of the road surface structure has been finished. The immediate goal is to lay crushed stone base, reinforce with cement, lay asphalt concrete, and install auxiliary items such as traffic safety corridors, warning paint, and traffic signs.
"I've never seen such intense enthusiasm for highway construction as I do now. The closer we get to the completion stage, the more urgent the atmosphere becomes, with everyone highly focused and united in their determination to complete the work and ensure the project is finished by April 30, 2025," Mr. Quyet emphasized.
Despite the continuously shortened construction time and increasing pressure, according to Mr. Quyet, the highway construction workforce always encourages each other to overcome current disadvantages in order to achieve the common goal.
Pointing to Long Tuong mountain not far from the construction site, Mr. Quyet said that was the most difficult part of the job, having to cut through the mountain to build the highway.
"Because Long Tuong Mountain is close to residential areas, it's impossible to blast the rocks with explosives. For over 15 months, we had to use hammers to manually chisel and break up 180,000 cubic meters of rock, which was very difficult," the official shared.
In addition, difficulties also arise from the extremely harsh weather in Central Vietnam, with intense sunshine during sunny periods and prolonged rain during rainy periods. A storm could even directly destroy unfinished parts of the project, requiring it to be rebuilt from scratch.
Nevertheless, looking at his colleagues busily working on each part of the project, Mr. Quyet affirmed that the goal of completing the project by April 30, 2025, as requested by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, is entirely feasible thanks to the great efforts and high determination of everyone involved.
Following engineer Tran Dang Phu to the Thanh Dong bridge construction site, the second largest bridge on the Can Tho - Hau Giang expressway, a reporter from Dan Tri newspaper witnessed workers lowering girders and pouring concrete for the bridge deck. A sudden downpour forced the entire concrete crew to brave the rain, using tarpaulins to cover the newly poured concrete.
"It rains frequently this season, 2-3 times a day, each time for 30-60 minutes. The worst part is when it starts raining while we're pouring concrete. We have to stop and wait for the rain to stop before we can continue pouring. If we stop for too long, the entire truckload of concrete has to be thrown away," Mr. Phu shared.
In keeping with the spirit of "overcoming the sun and conquering the rain" as directed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the contractor's representative stated that if it rains lightly, the workers will continue working, but if it rains heavily, they will temporarily stop and wait for the weather to clear.
Speaking about the pressure to meet deadlines, Mr. Phu said that for sections crossing canals and waterways, the bridge construction must be completed as soon as possible so that the bridge surface can be used as a service road for construction vehicles to move along.
"Since the Thanh Dong bridge marks the boundary between Can Tho and Hau Giang provinces, we have to complete the bridge by the end of this year, one year ahead of the overall project schedule, so the pressure to meet the deadline is immense," a representative of the contractor shared.
Mr. Thai Truong Giang, Chairman of Hai Dang Group (the contractor for the Hau Giang - Ca Mau expressway), recounted that after the project's groundbreaking ceremony (January 1, 2023), the contractors spent about 11 months waiting, unable to begin construction due to a lack of sand.
At that time, commercial sand was priced sky-high, nearly three times higher than the price announced by the government. "Businesses that bought sand at that price to bring to construction sites would suffer huge losses," Mr. Giang said.
Faced with this situation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued decisive directives to resolve the difficulties by directly assigning the sand mine to the contractor.
"The Prime Minister sent numerous documents, convened many meetings, and even made phone calls to give instructions… in order to get the policy of assigning the material quarry to the contractor," the contractor's leader recalled.
However, despite the Prime Minister's directive, the managing agency, the Ministry of Transport, lacked decisiveness, and nothing progressed. Mr. Giang also praised the Ministry of Transport's leadership for closely monitoring the construction site, sometimes even taking the contractor to meet with provincial leaders to resolve obstacles.
The high level of determination that the workers directly involved in the highway construction project have repeatedly mentioned stems from the motivation instilled by the decisive directives of the Government, especially Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
Beginning a term fraught with difficulties, the government leaders have consistently been present in the most critical areas to provide timely motivation, resolve obstacles, and advance the work.
It is difficult to compile a complete list of the visits made by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his deputies to construction sites of key transportation projects, because since the beginning of his term, almost every weekend or during holidays, government leaders have visited localities and projects to encourage the workers.
During the recent April 30th - May 1st holiday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh made numerous visits to various transportation projects, creating positive momentum right from the construction sites. He attended the inauguration ceremony of the Cam Lam - Vinh Hao expressway on April 28th. This is a project the Prime Minister personally inspected three times, each time setting specific requirements regarding progress and resolving many obstacles to the project's construction.
Previously, during inspections of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project and the eastern sections of the North-South Expressway, government leaders both encouraged and set strict requirements to ensure both progress and quality of the construction.
Spirits like "overcoming the sun and rain, not defeated by storms," "working day and night is not enough," "construction continues through holidays and Tet," "working 3 shifts and 4 teams"... have perhaps become too familiar and have become a "trademark" of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's directives.
That decisive action from the head of government quickly spread and motivated local authorities, making it impossible for even those who wanted to procrastinate to stop working.
In mid-July, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also inspected and urged the progress of expressway projects along the north-south and south-north-west axes in the Mekong Delta, including the Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway, the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway, the Cao Lanh - An Huu expressway, the My An - Cao Lanh expressway, and the Ho Chi Minh Highway sections from Rach Soi - Ben Nhat and Go Quao - Vinh Thuan…
On August 17th, during his working visit to Dak Lak, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh inspected phase 1 of the Khanh Hoa – Buon Ma Thuot expressway project. The expressway, over 117km long, will have four lanes and a preliminary total investment of 21,935 billion VND.
To facilitate land clearance and resettlement for this project, the Prime Minister issued 12 directives related to land clearance for the Khanh Hoa – Buon Ma Thuot project (including 10 notices of conclusions and 2 telegrams from the Prime Minister). To date, land acquisition has reached 94%.
At the construction site, the Prime Minister was particularly impressed by the sharing of the officials, engineers, and workers about organizing construction flexibly to suit the harsh weather conditions, unpredictable sunshine and rain, and working diligently and enthusiastically with the spirit of "overcoming the sun and conquering the rain".
Inquiring about and thanking the people for giving up their land for the highway construction, the Prime Minister expressed his hope that the people would continue to support, cooperate, and share in the project's implementation.
The image of the Prime Minister and members of the government delegation moving back and forth between construction sites has become familiar and is a great source of encouragement for the thousands of officials, engineers, and workers who are working tirelessly day and night to build the expressway.
He also made sure to observe and listen to every small problem at the construction site in order to come up with solutions to resolve them.
The visits of the head of government are not only for encouragement and motivation, but also to "see and hear" firsthand the practical problems in order to make decisions to resolve the issues on the spot.
We are gradually approaching the "highway dream," and it is clear that this dream did not suddenly become a reality, but was achieved through much sweat and effort, thanks to the decisive leadership of the Government with the spirit of "daring to think, daring to act, daring to innovate, daring to take responsibility, for the common good."
Content: Hoai Thu, Ngoc Tan
Design: Tuan Huy
Dantri.com.vn
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/lanh-dao-chinh-phu-truyen-lua-xay-cao-toc-20241103101809373.htm
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