Efforts to clear roads in mountainous communes

DNO - To facilitate access and support for food and necessities for isolated areas, mountainous communes urgently cleared a series of university and inter-village roads that were buried by rocks and soil.

A serious landslide on the road to Axòo village, Tay Giang commune, took a long time to repair. Photo: HO QUAN

Full force to clear roads to communes

After heavy rain from October 25 to 29, the road from the center of Tay Giang commune to Axòo village was only 12km long but 18 landslides appeared, completely isolating 38 households in the village for nearly 7 days.

To survey the situation and provide timely food support to the people, the commune's working group spent more than 2 hours crossing landslide sites to reach the village.

However, the amount of goods brought in each time is limited, not enough to meet the demand, especially at a time when many households have run out of rice reserves. The village has no electricity for people to mill and store rice for the upcoming storm. Getting traffic into the village is an urgent task.

A section of the road leading to Axoo village, Tay Giang commune has been opened to traffic. Photo: LE TIEN

Mr. Huynh Phuoc Duc, Director of Phuoc Manh Construction and Trading Company Limited (the unit that maintains and repairs the road to Axoo village) said that the key to opening the road is to handle 3 severe landslides. At the location where the roadbed was completely washed away for more than 30m, the construction unit dug into the positive slope to open the road.

The remaining two locations, where rocks and soil from the hill collapsed, buried a 200m and a nearly 2km section, were handled by bulldozing. With all forces working hard, the road to Axòo village was able to be opened to traffic on November 1.

“The road was only opened for one day when it was cut off again due to continued landslides after heavy rain. We committed to the local authorities to open the road on November 5, ensuring that people can move to the commune center to buy food and essential supplies before storm No. 13 makes landfall,” Mr. Duc shared.

[ VIDEO ] - Tay Giang commune strives to reopen the first phase of roads cut off by landslides:

According to statistics from the People's Committee of Tay Giang commune, during the recent flood, more than 105 large and small landslides appeared on the highways and inter-village routes, of which more than 40 landslides completely covered the road surface.

About 500,000 cubic meters of rock and soil flowed down, cutting off 15 main traffic routes leading to the villages, burying 14,700 meters of culverts and road drainage ditches. Many locations on the roads also experienced serious slope collapse, cracks, and subsidence.

For nearly a week, 14 villages were completely isolated. Total damage to transport infrastructure amounted to 54.2 billion VND.

“Before the flood season, the locality surveyed the roads and instructed 8 construction units to arrange vehicles in vulnerable areas. Therefore, as soon as a landslide occurred, access to the scene and recovery were quickly implemented.

Up to now, the locality has opened step 1 for 14/15 routes, with the volume of earth and rock leveled up to more than 200,000m³," said Mr. Arat Blui, Chairman of Tay Giang Commune People's Committee.

Flexible adaptation

Tay Giang Construction Company Limited is the only unit that sells petroleum products serving 3 communes: Tay Giang, Avuong and Hung Son.

Before the recent heavy rain, the People's Committee of Tay Giang commune requested the enterprise to reserve 35,000 liters of oil and 3,500 liters of gasoline. However, after more than 10 days of consumption, the enterprise only had 2,000 liters of oil left and had run out of gasoline. Notably, landslides caused a disruption on the Ho Chi Minh road through Avuong commune, causing two gasoline supply trucks to be stuck in Dong Giang commune.

“This is a local concern. In recent times, apart from a small amount of gasoline used for transportation and generators during power outages, gasoline has mainly been supplied to construction units to carry out road construction on university and inter-village routes.

In Tay Giang commune alone, businesses use about 20,000 liters of oil to ensure work. Hung Son and Avuong communes also need gasoline to help overcome the consequences of natural disasters on key traffic routes.

If landslides recur, all three communes of Tay Giang, Avuong, and Hung Son will face difficulties," said Mr. Bhling Mia, Secretary of the Party Committee of Tay Giang commune.

Gasoline in Tay Giang commune has run out after many days of focusing on supplying to units carrying out the task of clearing roads in 3 communes: Tay Giang, Avuong, Hung Son. Photo: LE TIEN

According to Mr. Bhling Mia, while waiting for the Ho Chi Minh route to be cleared and the supplier to bring gasoline to the area, the locality requested Tay Giang Construction Company Ltd. to prioritize supplying all remaining oil to businesses that maintain and repair traffic routes in the 3 communes.

The company must reserve 1,000 liters of oil in the warehouse to serve emergency road clearance tasks when storms occur.

People of Tra Tap commune participate in clearing rocks and soil, and clearing traffic at small landslides. Photo: HO QUAN

During the recent floods, in mountainous communes, traffic was severely damaged, from national highways, provincial roads to university roads, inter-village roads, roads leading to residential areas and production areas.

Although all forces were mobilized to participate in road opening, the number of businesses located in mountainous areas is still small, with limited machinery and vehicles.

Clearing a series of roads takes a lot of time, especially in mountainous weather conditions where heavy rains and landslides frequently recur.

Therefore, communes with heavy traffic damage such as Tra Tap, Tra Van, Tra Doc, Tra Giap, Tra Tan, Avuong, Hung Son... are prioritizing the opening of vital routes to access isolated areas, promptly supplying food, provisions, and medicine.

For roads leading to residential areas or small landslides, localities mobilize people to participate in clearing rocks and soil to ensure immediate travel.

Mr. Le Trung Thuc, Chairman of Tra Tap Commune People's Committee, said that after the recent flood, the locality recorded 293 locations of positive slope soil and rock overflowing onto more than 8,000m of roadbed on 12 routes.

With a "huge" amount of work to be overcome, the locality coordinated with project construction units and works in the area to support vehicles and use all its strength to clear about 40km of key routes.

At the same time, mobilize shock forces and people to clean up minor landslides, clear motorbike routes on Mang To - Mang Klung, Tu Gia 2 - Lang Luong routes, routes leading to schools, residential areas...

“The road opening helps the locality to conveniently transport 9.8 tons of rice, food, and necessities to villages that have been isolated for a long time, ensuring that no household goes hungry during this rainy season,” Mr. Thuc shared.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/no-luc-thong-duong-tai-cac-xa-mien-nui-3309245.html