Will invest in completing a series of road tunnels on the North-South expressway

Contractors construct a road tunnel on the Eastern North-South Expressway. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

The Ministry of Construction has just sent a document to Project Management Boards 2, 6, and 7 regarding the investment in completing road tunnels on the Eastern North-South Expressway in the 2021-2025 period using balanced funding from component projects.

Request surplus capital from the project to invest in completing the tunnel

According to the report of the Department of Economics and Construction Investment Management, on the North-South Expressway in the East, there are 17 road tunnels with a total length of more than 21km. Of these, 8 tunnels (nearly 9km long) have been completed, with 2 tunnels in operation with a scale of 4-6 complete lanes.

With 9 other tunnels (nearly 13km long), 2 tunnels have been dug but only the investment phase has been completed to exploit 1 tunnel with 2 lanes. The remaining tunnels have reinforced concrete tunnel shells, road surfaces to be used as rescue and escape tunnels, and have not invested in surface drainage systems, electromechanical systems, and tunnel access roads...

For the 9 new tunnels with 1 tube invested, the Ministry of Construction has approved the investment policy to complete 4 tunnels including: Son Trieu tunnel, Than Vu tunnel, Cu Mong tunnel, Nui Vung tunnel. The remaining 5 tunnels have not yet had investment policies to complete including Deo But tunnel, 778m long (Vung Ang-Bung section); Tunnel No. 1, 698m long, Tunnel No. 2, 575m long and Tunnel No. 3, 3,200m long ( Quang Ngai -Hoai Nhon section) and Tuy An tunnel, 1,020m long (Chi Thanh-Van Phong section).

The North-South Expressway Eastern component projects in the 2021-2025 period will be basically completed and put into operation in 2025. Completing 1 tunnel and operating 2 lanes poses a risk of traffic congestion (when there is an incident in the tunnel) as well as during holidays and Tet when traffic volume increases.

“It is necessary for investors to propose to invest in completing 2 tunnels to put them into independent and synchronous exploitation between the route and the tunnel to increase traffic capacity, enhance traffic safety on the route during exploitation and use, and improve the investment efficiency of the project,” said the leader of the Department of Economics and Construction Investment Management.

On the other hand, the North-South Eastern Expressway Project for the 2021-2025 period is divided into 12 component projects, with a total length of 729km, passing through 32 provinces and cities with a total investment of VND 146,990 billion.

Currently, the total estimated budget needed to complete the 12 component projects according to the approved design is about 141,347.9 billion VND (including investment costs for traffic control systems, non-stop toll collection, vehicle weight control, expected contract bonuses and some items expected to arise and be added during the implementation process). Thus, the total remaining budget for the 12 component projects is about 5,637.63 billion VND.

“In the case of completing the investment in 5 tunnel projects on the route, the total investment cost will not exceed the total investment level nor the preliminary total investment level (about 146,990 billion VND) approved and will not create factors leading to the need to adjust the investment policy of the North-South Expressway Project in the 2021-2025 period,” the leader of the Department of Economics and Construction Investment Management affirmed.

Balanced enough to complete

According to the report of Project Management Board 6, the investment cost to complete the Deo But tunnel on the Vung Ang-Bung expressway is about 265 billion VND. The remaining cost of the project (after investing in the traffic control system, non-stop toll collection, and vehicle weight control) is about 955 billion VND, enough to immediately complete the tunnel project.

For the Quang Ngai-Hoai Nhon section, the investment cost to complete 3 tunnels is about 1,430 billion VND (tunnel 1 is about 159 billion VND, tunnel 2 is more than 219 billion VND, tunnel 3 is about 819 billion VND and the traffic control system of the tunnels is about 234 billion VND).

The remaining budget of the project (after investing in the traffic control system, non-stop toll collection, and vehicle weight control) is about 316 billion VND, not enough to invest in completing all 3 tunnels. On that basis, Project Management Board 2 proposed that the Ministry of Construction approve the investment policy to complete tunnel 1 using the project's budget for immediate implementation and consider supplementing the remaining budget (about 1,100 billion VND) to invest in completing tunnels 2 and 3.

At the Chi Thanh-Van Phong expressway, the investment cost to complete Tuy An tunnel is about 225 billion VND. Meanwhile, the remaining budget of the project has run out, the project still has some items with a cost of about 281 billion VND. Therefore, Project Management Board 7 proposed the Ministry of Construction to consider supplementing the remaining budget to complete the entire project and invest in completing Tuy An tunnel.

“Thus, the total investment cost for completing the above 5 road tunnels is approximately VND1,922 billion. Of which, 2 component projects (Quang Ngai-Hoai Nhon and Quy Nhon-Chi Thanh) lack about VND1,621 billion in funding, which needs to be balanced from other remaining component projects for implementation,” the Department of Economics and Construction Investment Management analyzed.

Vehicles passing through the Deo Ca tunnel. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Based on the budget review, in order to minimize the handling of project adjustment procedures, the Department of Construction Investment and Economic Management recommends that the Ministry of Construction consider the Bung-Van Ninh section project (Project Management Board 6 is the investor) with a surplus of about 1,522 billion VND, balance and adjust it to the Quang Ngai-Hoai Nhon section project with more than 1,115 billion VND and more than 87 billion VND to the Chi Thanh-Van Phong section project. The Van Phong-Nha Trang section project has a surplus of nearly 419 billion VND, balance and adjust it completely for the Chi Thanh-Van Phong section project.

According to the report of the Department of Planning and Finance (Ministry of Construction), the 2025 capital plan is expected to have a surplus of nearly 1,868 billion VND, enough to balance investment to complete tunnel projects.

Agreeing on the investment policy to complete the above road tunnels, the Ministry of Construction assigned the project management boards to urgently organize the preparation and submit to the Ministry for approval the adjustment of component projects as recommended by the Department of Economics - Construction Investment Management in June 2025; complete the appraisal and approval of designs and estimates in August 2025, complete the procedures to implement construction according to regulations, soon put the tunnel projects into operation, and promote investment efficiency.

Source: https://baobinhphuoc.com.vn/news/4/172751/se-dau-tu-hoan-chinh-hang-loat-ham-duong-bo-tren-tuyen-cao-toc-bac-nam