Temporarily open to traffic Prenn Pass, gateway to Lam Dong provincial center

On the afternoon of November 25, Lam Dong province allowed temporary traffic through Prenn Pass, the main route from the southern provinces to Da Lat city, the center of Lam Dong province.

Landslide on Prenn Pass near Datanla Bridge occurred on the morning of November 17. Photo: Nguyen Dung/VNA

Previously, on the morning of November 17, this 4-lane pass was seriously eroded and paralyzed, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee had to declare a natural disaster emergency for the Prenn Pass road, prohibiting people and vehicles from traveling through the pass.

According to the Department of Construction of Lam Dong province, currently, the situation of rain and storms is complicated in the province, at the same time, construction units are continuing to repair and overcome the route. Therefore, the Department of Construction recommends that people and vehicles, when traveling through the Prenn Pass, should limit traveling through the route when there is heavy rain, at night, limited visibility (fog) except in necessary cases, and while traveling, pay attention to observe the current status of the route to promptly handle any incident that occurs.

Vehicles must drive slowly, comply with traffic signs and traffic diversion plans in areas where construction and repair work is being carried out on the route. The Traffic Police Department of the Provincial Police and the People's Committee of Xuan Huong Ward - Da Lat are requested to support the arrangement of forces to regularly patrol and control, ensuring smooth and safe traffic during the construction and repair of Prenn Pass; Project Management Board No. 1 organizes the installation of road signaling systems in accordance with the construction and traffic diversion plans on the route.

Previously, due to the impact of heavy rains, at around 9:00 a.m. on November 17, the Prenn Pass road from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh City, from Km224+600 to Km224+700, a landslide occurred, about 7.5 m wide, on the road surface and the negative slope retaining wall. Then, at 3 other locations, mainly from km224 to km225, large cracks appeared along the road surface. Notably, at Km225+700, about 500 m from the gate of the Datanla waterfall tourist area, on the positive slope, a piece of concrete to hold the soil was torn along, with the risk of the rock and soil mass above being pushed down to the road surface. The above situation has caused danger if people and vehicles are allowed to travel through the pass.

After the incident, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee and Deo Ca Construction Joint Stock Company - Deo Ca Transport Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company (the unit that previously constructed the Prenn Da Lat Pass Upgrade and Expansion Project) organized temporary handling plans. The construction company has deployed urgent items including erecting corrugated iron fences, erecting traffic safety warning signs; driving steel sheet piles to block landslides and cracks on the road surface; creating a surface for people and vehicles to temporarily circulate across 2/4 lanes.

On the morning of November 25, the People's Committee of Lam Dong province held a meeting on the situation and solutions to overcome the traffic works that were eroded and damaged by natural disasters and floods in the recent past. Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Lam Dong province Nguyen Hong Hai directed agencies and units to focus on measures to handle the subsidence situation on Prenn Pass.

Accordingly, the province assigned the Department of Construction to organize 2 steps for this pass. Step 1 will be temporarily open to traffic before 13:00 on November 25; Step 2 will be fully open to traffic before Lunar New Year (around February 10), after completely repairing the landslides and cracked road surfaces. After completing the repair work, this route will be handed over to the Department of Construction for direct management.

According to relevant agencies and units, after the Penn Pass Upgrade Project was completed, there were a number of problems in the maintenance and repair of this pass. Specifically, the project was completed and put into use in January 2024 and is still under warranty. However, the project has not been officially handed over to any specific unit. The People's Committee of Da Lat City, the designated unit to receive the handover (now transferred to the People's Committee of Xuan Huong Ward - Da Lat), has not signed to receive the handover of this project.

The investment project to upgrade and expand Prenn Pass started on February 10, 2023. This project has a total length of 7.4 km, with a scale of 4 lanes, a 15.5m wide roadbed, a 14.5m wide road surface... The total investment is 553 billion VND from the local budget; the project implementation period is 2022-2023.

This is a very important project of the urban gateway traffic route of Da Lat connecting with Lien Khuong International Airport. Before being renovated, expanded and upgraded, the Prenn Pass route was often congested and traffic jammed during holidays, New Year and holidays, causing nightmares for traffic participants, especially tourists from the southern provinces and cities to Da Lat.

Currently, there are 4 routes from the southern provinces to Da Lat city, of which the 2 closest and most convenient main routes, Prenn Pass and Mimosa Pass, are both seriously subsided and have been declared an emergency situation due to natural disasters.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/xa-hoi/thong-xe-tam-thoi-deo-prenn-cua-ngo-trung-tam-tinh-ly-lam-dong-20251125135629917.htm