Agreed to complete investment in 6 road tunnels on North-South Expressway phase 2

Construction of Tuy An tunnel on Chi Thanh - Van Phong highway - Photo: Construction Newspaper

Investment needed to increase traffic capacity

According to the Department of Economics - Construction Investment Management ( Ministry of Construction ), on the North - South expressway in the East, there are 17 road tunnels, with a total length of more than 21km. Of which, 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 tunnel 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. There are still 5 tunnels without investment policy to complete.

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.

Therefore, it is necessary for investors to propose to invest in completing 2 tunnels to put 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.

Approval of adjustments to component projects in June

Recently, the Ministry of Construction has issued a document directing Project Management Boards: 2, 6, 7 on the investment in completing road tunnels on the North-South expressway in the East phase 2021 - 2025 (phase 2).

Accordingly, after reviewing the reports of specialized Departments and investors, the Ministry of Construction agreed on the investment policy to complete the road tunnels on the North-South Expressway, Eastern section, phase 2, using balanced funding from component projects.

This agency requires project management boards to urgently organize the preparation and submission to the Ministry of Construction for approval of adjustments to 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 procedures to implement construction according to regulations, soon put tunnel projects into operation, and promote investment efficiency.

The Department of Economics and Construction Investment Management said that the construction time for the tunnels is expected to be about 9 months. Tunnel No. 3, the Quang Ngai - Hoai Nhon section, is 3.2 km long and will take about 12 months to complete. After the Ministry of Construction approves the investment policy to complete the tunnel projects on the North - South Expressway, it is expected that the completion of procedures to implement the construction of the tunnels will be basically completed in the second quarter of 2026.

According to the report of the Department of Economics - Construction Investment Management, on the North - South Eastern Expressway, phase 2, 6 tunnels/length of nearly 7km were invested, 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); Son Trieu tunnel 575m long (Quy Nhon - Chi Thanh section) and Tuy An tunnel 1,020m long (Chi Thanh - Van Phong section).

All 6 tunnels are approved with the investment scale of complete construction of 1 right tunnel (including electromechanical system for exploitation). The left tunnel is deployed to dig and complete the tunnel lining to protect the project, serve rescue and relief work during exploitation and complete investment to ensure the overall scale of the entire route at the completion stage.

During the construction process, the Ministry of Construction has approved the investment policy to complete Son Trieu tunnel. The remaining 5 tunnels do not have a complete investment policy.

According to the project management board's report, the total investment cost for the Deo But tunnel is about 265 billion VND. The remaining cost of the project (after investing in the ITS, ETC systems and vehicle load testing) is about 955 billion VND, enough to immediately invest in the complete tunnel project.

For the Quang Ngai - Hoai Nhon section, the investment cost to complete the 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 ITS system of the tunnels is about 234 billion VND). The remaining cost of the project (after investing in the ITS, ETC systems and checking vehicle load) 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 No. 1 using the project's budget for immediate implementation and consider supplementing the remaining funding (about 1,100 billion VND) to invest in completing tunnels No. 2 and No. 3.

At the Chi Thanh - Van Phong expressway section, the report of Project Management Board 7 shows that 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 additional items with a cost of about 281 billion VND.

On that basis, the project management unit proposed that the Ministry of Construction consider supplementing the remaining funding to complete and invest in completing Tuy An tunnel.

"Thus, the total investment cost for completing the above 5 road tunnels is approximately 1,922 billion VND. Of which, 2 component projects (Quang Ngai - Hoai Nhon and Quy Nhon - Chi Thanh) lack about 1,621 billion VND in funding, which needs to be balanced from other remaining component projects for implementation," the Department of Economics - Construction Investment Management reported.

For more information, the Department of Professional Affairs said that the total approved investment of 12 component projects of the North-South Expressway, Eastern Region, Phase 2 is more than 146,985 billion VND. The total estimated budget needed to synchronously complete 12 component projects according to the approved design is approximately 141,348 billion VND. The total remaining budget is approximately more than 5,637 billion VND.

In case of completing 5 tunnel projects on the route, the total investment cost does not exceed the total investment level nor the preliminary total investment level (about 146,990 billion VND) approved and does not create factors leading to the adjustment of the investment policy of the North - South Expressway project phase 2. The investment in completing the tunnel project will bring higher efficiency to the project, so it is eligible for project adjustment according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment and the Law on Construction.

Based on the budget review, in order to minimize the handling of project adjustment procedures, the Department of Economics - Construction Investment Management recommends that the Ministry of Construction consider the surplus of about 1,522 billion VND for the Bung - Van Ninh section project (PMU 6 is the investor), balance and adjust to the Quang Ngai - Hoai Nhon section project 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 still has a surplus of nearly 419 billion VND, which will be balanced and adjusted 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 VND 1,868 billion, enough to balance investment to complete tunnel projects.

Phan Trang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/thong-nhat-dau-tu-hoan-chinh-6-ham-duong-bo-tren-cao-toc-bac-nam-giai-doan-2-102250515134913124.htm