Accelerating the Cat Lai Bridge Construction Project

The proposed area for building a bridge to replace Cat Lai ferry. Photo: P. Tung

Proposed area for building a bridge to replace Cat Lai ferry. Photo: Document

The Cat Lai Bridge Construction Investment Project is one of the most anticipated transport infrastructure projects connecting Dong Nai with Ho Chi Minh City today.

Ho Chi Minh City supplements related planning

To implement the Cat Lai Bridge Construction Investment Project, in the past time, the leaders as well as the Department of Construction of the two localities of Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City have had many working sessions. In particular, one of the problems that the functional agencies of the two localities focused on solving was to supplement the planning related to this project in Ho Chi Minh City to ensure synchronization and feasibility when organizing implementation.

On June 11, the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City sent Document No. 2554/SXD-XDCTDB to the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City regarding the addition of planning related to Cat Lai Bridge. In this document, the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City said that the unit had been provided with the route plan of the Cat Lai Bridge Project by the Department of Construction of Dong Nai Province. Along with that, the People's Committee of Thu Duc City also sent an official dispatch requesting the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City to provide legal documents and plans for the Cat Lai Bridge Project as a basis for updating the 1/2,000 scale planning project of subdivision No. 6, Thu Duc City.

Regarding the Cat Lai bridge route proposed by the Department of Construction of Dong Nai province, it basically follows Nguyen Thi Dinh street, in accordance with the Ho Chi Minh City Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister . At the same time, it is in accordance with the consensus of the two localities before.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction has proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to assign the unit to continue coordinating with the Dong Nai Province Department of Construction to complete the design plan, ensuring convenient traffic organization, as a basis for completing the pre-feasibility study report and feasibility study report of the Cat Lai Bridge Project.

Regarding the selected route centerline option, according to the report of the Department of Construction of Dong Nai province, there is a local adjustment of deviation from the centerline of Nguyen Thi Dinh street by about 336m, close to Dong Nai River to ensure a safe corridor for the operation of the existing Cat Lai port, facilitate construction implementation and limit the arrangement of curves on the main span structure (cable-stayed structure) causing complicated technical problems.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the above design plan for Cat Lai Bridge basically meets the technical requirements. However, it is necessary to continue clarifying the connection plan, traffic organization at My Thuy intersection, the intersection of Cat Lai - Phu Huu Inter-port road and the plan for vehicles entering and exiting Cat Lai Port. Therefore, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction will coordinate with the Dong Nai Department of Construction to complete the design plan for Cat Lai Bridge in the next steps.

Also according to the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City, currently, Cat Lai bridge has only been added to the Ho Chi Minh City Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. Therefore, in order to ensure the basis for organizing the preparation of pre-feasibility study reports and project feasibility study reports, the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City recommends that the City People's Committee assign the Department of Construction and the People's Committee of Thu Duc City to add Cat Lai bridge according to the proposal of the Department of Construction of Dong Nai province to the Ho Chi Minh City General Planning project and the 1/2000 scale planning project of subdivision No. 6, Thu Duc City.

Also on June 11, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong signed Document No. 4243/UBND-DT notifying the opinion of the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on the proposal of the Department of Construction. Accordingly, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approved the report and proposal of the Department of Construction. At the same time, assigned the Department of Construction and the People's Committee of Thu Duc City to carry out related work.

Dong Nai looking for project investors

On the Dong Nai side, in May 2025, the Department of Construction announced the call for investors for the Cat Lai Bridge Project. Accordingly, the Cat Lai Bridge Project with a total investment of more than 19 trillion VND will be implemented in the form of public-private partnership (PPP). This is an inter-regional transport infrastructure project connecting Dong Nai province and Ho Chi Minh City. The Cat Lai Bridge Project has a cross-section of 6 motor vehicle lanes and 2 mixed vehicle lanes.

Previously, through comparing the options, Dong Nai province also proposed to choose the bridge construction option to implement the Cat Lai Bridge Project because the tunnel construction option is difficult to ensure the financial plan of the project. Along with that, the cost for maintenance and operation is very large.

Regarding the investment form, Dong Nai proposed a plan to divide the project into 4 component projects. In which, component projects 1 and 2, site clearance on the Ho Chi Minh City side and Dong Nai province side, will be implemented by the 2 localities using the budget capital of each locality. With Component Project 3, the construction of Cat Lai bridge will be implemented under the BOT form with the participation of Dong Nai province's budget capital. Meanwhile, with Component Project 4, the investment in building the connecting road after the Cat Lai bridge toll station to the end of the route will be implemented by Dong Nai province using the provincial budget capital or investing in the BT form of land fund exploitation.

Pham Tung

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202506/tang-toc-du-an-xay-cau-cat-lai-ef043b5/