Plan to "upgrade" expressways to 2 lanes

The two sections of the North-South Eastern Expressway with two lanes are in priority group 1 to urgently complete investment procedures for upgrading and expanding to four standard lanes using public investment capital.

North-South Expressway East, Cam Lo - La Son section

Through the "bottleneck"

“We have just completed the explanation and finalization of the Pre-Feasibility Study Report of the North-South Expressway Expansion Project in the East, La Son - Hoa Lien section to report to the Ministry of Transport for consideration and send it to the standing agency of the State Appraisal Council, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, for appraisal according to the planning,” said Mr. Nguyen Vu Quy, Director of the Ho Chi Minh Road Project Management Board.

It is known that, immediately after receiving Official Dispatch No. 1264/BKHĐT-PTHTĐT dated February 22, 2024 of the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the explanation of the Pre-feasibility Study Report of the North-South Expressway Expansion Project in the East, La Son - Hoa Lien section, the Ministry of Transport issued an urgent document directing the Ho Chi Minh Road Project Management Board to urgently clarify the requested contents. "For nearly a week, the Management Board has mobilized all professional staff in the unit and project consultants to work regardless of holidays to promptly explain according to the schedule required by the Ministry of Transport", Mr. Quy said.

The North-South Expressway Expansion Project, Eastern section, La Son - Hoa Lien is one of only two segments on the trans-Vietnam expressway that currently has only 2 lanes. Both of these sections overlap with the Ho Chi Minh route.

Previously, at the end of December 2023, the Ministry of Transport issued Document No. 14605/TTr-BGTVT requesting the Prime Minister to consider approving the Pre-feasibility Study Report of the North-South Expressway Expansion Project in the East, La Son - Hoa Lien section, with a total investment of about VND 3,011 billion. According to the proposal of the Ministry of Transport, the Project will upgrade 66 km of existing 2-lane road to a complete 4-lane scale with a roadbed width of 22 m and a road surface width of 20.5 m.

The project is expected to be allocated from the central budget for the 2021-2025 period, of which 1,173 billion VND has been allocated from the medium-term public investment capital for the 2021-2025 period to carry out investment preparation work and the expected balance from the increased central budget revenue in 2022 announced in Document No. 1303/TTg-KTTH dated December 6, 2023 of the Prime Minister is 3,009,827 billion VND.

“Due to the importance of the project, the Ministry of Transport will immediately carry out the required procedures to start construction soon. The goal is to complete investment preparation from 2023 to 2024 and start construction from 2024 to 2025,” the leader of the Ministry of Transport informed.

Another component project of the North-South Expressway in the East, which was divided into investment phases with a scale of 2 lanes, has just been assigned by the Ministry of Transport to the Ho Chi Minh City Project Management Board to complete the investment plan, expanding it to a scale of 4 lanes, the Cam Lo - La Son section.

According to preliminary calculations, the investment capital to upgrade and expand the 98 km North-South Expressway in the East, Cam Lo - La Son section from 2 lanes to 4 standard lanes, with continuous emergency lanes is about 6,500 billion VND. This plan was established in 2020, but still needs to be updated to suit the actual situation, before submitting to competent authorities for approval.

In addition to the fact that most of the North-South expressway section in the East, the Cam Lo - La Son - Hoa Lien section has been compensated for and cleared according to the scale of 4 lanes, a great advantage to be able to shorten the "upgrade" of this "bottleneck" expressway section, which has the potential to cause traffic safety risks, is that the roadbed of the entire route has been basically completed according to the scale of 4 lanes with a roadbed width of 22 m.

"Construction units only need to carry out technical processing to meet the project's technical requirements, ensure safety in exploitation, and then proceed to lay asphalt concrete," said Mr. Quy.

Launch the cannon

It is known that the process of evaluating and researching investment in upgrading the expressways in operation according to the investment phase scale was initiated by the Ministry of Transport more than a year ago based on the instructions of the head of the Government. By December 2023, the Ministry of Transport had sent the first report to the Government on the results of the evaluation and research on investment in upgrading the expressways in operation according to the investment phase scale.

The Ministry of Transport is urgently reviewing the research results based on the latest direction of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Official Dispatch No. 16/CD-TTg dated February 21, 2024 on accelerating the research and investment in upgrading expressways in operation and being invested in on a phased scale.

According to the latest report of the Vietnam Expressway Administration, the total preliminary capital requirement for upgrading 2-lane expressways is about 82,911 billion VND. Based on the traffic situation and capital allocation capacity, the Vietnam Expressway Administration plans to prioritize investment options in 3 groups.

Specifically, priority group 1 will focus on expanding sections on the North-South expressway in the East. These are particularly important expressways, part of a key national project, including 98 km of the Cam Lo - La Son section and 66 km of the La Son - Hoa Lien section. The preliminary state capital requirement for this group is about VND9,511 billion; of which about VND3,011 billion has been allocated to expand the La Son - Hoa Lien section and about VND6,500 billion is needed to expand the Cam Lo - La Son section.

Priority group 2 will allocate resources to expand routes under construction to promptly adjust to save costs, including 10,000 billion VND to expand 93 km of the Dong Dang - Tra Linh section; 12,700 billion VND to expand 84 km of the Chon Thanh - Duc Hoa section; 10,100 billion VND to expand 104 km of the Tuyen Quang - Ha Giang section; 2,500 billion VND to expand 9 km of the Hai Phong coastal area.

Priority group 3 will expand some routes that are in operation and are preparing for investment, including: 53 km of Hoa Binh - Moc Chau expressway through Hoa Binh (section Km0 - Km19 and section Km19 - Km53 are preparing for investment); 32 km of Hoa Binh - Moc Chau expressway through Son La is preparing for investment; Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway section Yen Bai - Lao Cai is in operation; Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh expressway is in operation; Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi expressway is in operation. Preliminary capital demand for priority group 3 is about 38,100 billion VND.

However, this is not the final solution because the Ministry of Transport is waiting for investment proposals and upgrades of expressways that have been and are being invested in at different scales from localities to synthesize and complete the report to the Prime Minister.

“The investment in upgrading and expanding the 2-lane or 4-lane limited expressways is not the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Transport. Localities and relevant ministries and branches need to join hands to speed up the research progress and develop an optimal investment roadmap, in which the Prime Minister's Official Dispatch No. 16/CD-TTg should be considered as the starting gun to urgently upgrade the 2-lane expressways to meet the country's traffic requirements,” commented Mr. Tran Chung, Chairman of the Association of Road Construction Investors.

Prime Minister's directives regarding expressway subdivision

Highway planning must have a long-term, comprehensive vision (standards for completing at least 4 car lanes, enough emergency lanes, design speed of 80-100km/h; the straightest route possible, minimizing passage through residential and military areas; the spirit is to build bridges over rivers, build tunnels over mountains and hills, and build earth and sand over plains) and have an investment plan to complete according to highway standards, not investing in limited-scale highways with 2 lanes, causing waste of resources and time for upgrading and expanding. (Notice No. 29/TB-VPCP dated February 15, 2023).

The Ministry of Planning and Investment reviews the capital allocation for expressway projects to ensure investment in at least 4 expressway lanes, with stops and emergency lanes, and definitely does not invest in 2-lane expressways to limit waste of investment capital, ineffective exploitation, and take more time and procedures to upgrade. (Notice No. 63/TB-VPCP dated March 2, 2023).

The Ministry of Transport shall preside over and coordinate with relevant localities to urgently study investment plans and upgrade expressways that have been invested in phases to reach the scale of complete expressways, in accordance with design standards and transportation needs in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister in the above documents; in which, focus on investing as soon as possible in expressways with a scale of 2 lanes. At the same time, review and supplement fully and synchronously the infrastructure works on the route (such as intelligent traffic systems, rest stops, etc.); report to the Prime Minister in March 2024. (Dispatch No. 16/CD-TTg dated February 21, 2024).

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