East-West horizontal axis
National Highway (QL) 40B is over 209km long, starting at Tam Thanh commune (Tam Ky city), crossing the railway through Phu Ninh, Tien Phuoc, Bac Tra My, Nam Tra My districts of Quang Nam, to Tu Mo Rong, Ngoc Hoi districts ( Kon Tum ). As an East-West axis, QL40B intersects with other vital routes from the coastal plain, crossing the majestic Ngoc Linh peak.
These are Vo Chi Cong Street and National Highway 1 (Tam Ky area), Da Nang - Quang Ngai Expressway (Phu Ninh area), National Highway 24C and Truong Son Dong Road (Bac Tra My area), Ho Chi Minh Road (Ngoc Hoi, Kon Tum)...
From the end point of National Highway 40B intersecting with Ho Chi Minh Road at Ngoc Hoi, traffic participants travel about 50km to reach the Bo Y International Border Gate area (Kon Tum). Here, the Bo Y International Border Gate Economic Zone has an international border gate with Laos and a national border gate with Cambodia, connecting with the East-West Economic Corridor whose planning has been approved by the Prime Ministers of the three countries of Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia.
Trade, import-export and immigration activities are increasingly vibrant. The main export goods are cement, steel and fertilizer; the import goods are agricultural products. The distance from Bo Y International Border Gate down Highway 40B to Tam Thanh beach is more than 250km.
Early this June, Quang Nam province agreed in principle to allow Truong Hai Group Corporation (THACO) to conduct a field survey and establish a project to produce and process Ngoc Linh ginseng and other medicinal herbs.
In the proposal, THACO determined to conduct the survey in Nam Tra My, Bac Tra My and Phuoc Son, which have ideal ecological, soil and climate conditions for the growth of precious ginseng. The total survey area is 1,000 hectares, of which Nam Tra My accounts for 500 hectares, distributed in Tra Linh, Tra Nam and Tra Cang communes. Notably, Highway 40B is the only main route to the ginseng area, in which Tra Nam commune borders Tu Ma Rong.
Potential needs to be awakened
The distance from Bo Y International Border Gate following National Highway 40B down to Tam Ky, to Chu Lai port or Dung Quat port (Quang Ngai) is much shorter than traveling on National Highway 14B, then turning back to the South.
But why does Truong Hai International Transport and Logistics Company Limited (THILOGI), a member of THACO, transport goods from Laos through Bo Y International Border Gate to Chu Lai Port still take a detour? The representative of this enterprise specializing in providing full-package logistics services said that the unit's vehicles have never traveled this route before, because the road is narrow and dangerous.
Previously, QL40B in Quang Nam, 147.4km long, was formed on the basis of a mixture of urban roads, rural roads, district roads, provincial roads, and trails passing through the west of Tac Po (Nam Tra My). Therefore, this route originally had all kinds of cross-sections and different technical standards, and some sections even did not follow any standards. The road was bad, winding, and frequently had landslides, making the vital axis to the southwestern mountainous districts of the province always difficult.
From the above reality, Deputy Director of the Department of Construction - Mr. Tran Ngoc Thanh said that the section from Tam Ky through Nam Tra My to the border of Tu Mo Rong belonging to the Nam Quang Nam Road Project Phase I was invested in construction from government bonds and put into operation since 2011. The bypass routes of Tien Ky (Tien Phuoc), Tra My (Bac Tra My) and Tac Po were also put into use in turn.
In particular, Quang Nam has allocated provincial budget resources to complete the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 40B from the connecting section to the expressway to Tien Ky town bypass, more than 17km long, by the end of 2021.
In July 2023, the Provincial People's Committee started the Central Region Connectivity Project, in which National Highway 40B will have more than 18km expanded, connecting conveniently from Tien Ky to Tra My. In addition, the Vietnam Road Administration will allocate capital to carry out regular maintenance, periodic repairs and overcome the consequences of storms and floods...
Thus, Highway 40B from Bac Tra My to Kon Tum border still has many sections that have not been invested in and renovated; some sections have been renovated but the cross-section is not guaranteed, there are many "elbow" curves that obscure visibility, potentially causing traffic safety problems.
According to the management unit of Highway 40B, Nam Tra My section, there are about 71 dangerous curves on the route that need to be completely renovated. Due to technical factors, half of the road through Tra Nam commune is blocked by rocks and soil from landslides that cannot be completely repaired.
It can be seen that the distance from Tam Ky provincial capital to Kon Tum by National Highway 40B is shorter than other national highways. However, this horizontal axis is not chosen by many people for travel because the technical infrastructure is not yet complete.
But in the long term, investment in renovating and expanding National Highway 40B to the mountainous districts between Da Nang (new) and Quang Ngai (new) is very necessary to exploit the strengths of the locality, "awakening" the potential of the route in developing logistics services, tourism from the border gate, across the ginseng area, medicinal herb area, agricultural product area, down to the seaport, Chu Lai airport...
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/phat-trien-logistics-tiem-nang-tu-quoc-lo-40b-3156642.html
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