Specific regulations on technical standards for highways

Should legalize standards and regulations for highways

Many National Assembly deputies suggested that it is necessary to study and supplement the draft Law with specific regulations on technical standards and application of science and technology for highways. National Assembly deputy Nguyen Ngoc Son ( Hai Duong ) said that the Ministry of Transport is currently developing new technical standards for highways, but has not yet applied them, so it is not known whether the operation will bring more positive results or not. Therefore, according to the deputies, it is necessary to evaluate more carefully and specifically and refer to international experience to include in the draft Road Law to bring about effectiveness when implemented and to be consistent with the world's traffic development trends.

Proposing to legalize and prescribe mandatory principles on standards and regulations for highways, National Assembly member Le Hoang Anh (Gia Lai) said that it is necessary to stipulate that highways must have hard dividers, emergency lanes, and parking spots; at the same time, it is necessary to stipulate that the minimum width of highways is 3.75m, to avoid the risk of narrowing the road width to save costs when implementing investment in stages. In addition, according to the delegate, the speed of vehicles moving on highways must be the highest in the system of technical levels. The speed of vehicles moving at each stage will be regulated by the Ministry of Transport .

Highway divergence clearance once or many times?

Regarding the compensation, support and resettlement of the expressway (land clearance), delegate Nguyen Ngoc Son agreed with the draft Law submitted by the Government. Accordingly, the compensation, support and resettlement work is carried out according to the planning scale instead of in phases, because the budget for this work is only about less than 20% of the total investment budget. However, it is necessary to clarify the use of land that has been cleared but not invested because if the clearance is completed but the management is not effective, it will be costly to handle later.

National Assembly Deputy Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap) said that in the current economic conditions, when building and developing highways, long-term calculations must be made. If the site is not cleared according to the plan, it will be difficult to continue expanding in the future, while the implementation cost, according to the analysis submitted by the Government, accounts for about 15-20% of the total investment cost.

According to National Assembly member Tran Van Lam (Bac Giang), investment in expressways must be calculated for economic efficiency. If the land is cleared and then left there, it will be a waste. "The fear of people living in the neighboring areas encroaching on the construction has been planned, and the responsibility for managing the planning belongs to local authorities. If management is poor, even after the land is cleared, people will still encroach," said member Tran Van Lam.

Decentralization to provincial People's Committees to carry out investment in national highway construction

Regarding the regulation on assigning provincial People's Committees to invest in the construction of national highways in Article 32, expressways in the national highway system in Article 47 and the management, operation, exploitation and maintenance of national highways in Article 39, based on the direction of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Standing Committee of the National Defense and Security Committee accepted and revised Clause 2, Article 28 of the draft Law in the direction that in case of decentralization to provincial People's Committees to invest in the construction of national highways, it must comply with the provisions of the State Budget Law, the Public Investment Law and relevant laws.

Regarding the management, operation, exploitation and maintenance of national highways, the Standing Committee of the National Defense and Security Committee supplements Point c, Clause 2, Article 37 in the direction of: transferring the national highway section to the Provincial People's Committee for management according to the provisions of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets.

Agreeing with this content, delegate Nguyen Ngoc Son said that decentralizing the provincial People's Committee to invest in the construction of national highways according to Clause 2, Article 28 will help to take advantage of investment resources to develop a synchronous system, meeting the current transportation needs in many localities. However, because the current State Budget Law and Public Investment Law have not yet decentralized this construction investment to the provincial People's Committee, the delegate suggested that it is necessary to regulate this content in the direction of decentralizing authority to the provincial People's Committee according to the proposal of the provincial People's Committee and in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws.

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