According to the Government’s instructions, the project must complete in 2019 to reduce traffic pressure on National Highway 1A and boost socioeconomic development in the Mekong Delta region.
The project comprising four bid packages has been halted to change road cross section from 13.75 meters to 17 meters and designs of seven bridges, three intersections and others.
Transport Engineering Design Inc (TEDI) said that the design adjustment of the first phase aims to suit overall expressway scale from HCMC to Can Tho and regulations on expressway designs issued by the Ministry of Transport.
Beside design changes, the project has met with some difficulties such as the high increase in prices of construction materials especially sand. Investors’ disbursement of compensation for residents in the project’s area has been slow.
Trung Luong-My Thuan project’s first phase is located in Tien Giang province with the total length of 51 kilometers, designed with six lanes through 26 communes in five districts and towns of the province. Over 2,300 households have to remove for the expressway’s construction.
The project is invested with nearly VND15 trillion (US$662 million) by six businesses under BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) form.
That is part of Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho expressway project, which My Thuan-Can Tho stretch has been required by the Government to build and open to traffic in 2019, two years sooner than plan. The 23 kilometer stretch travels through Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Dong Thap province and Can Tho city.
So far, the Ministry of Transport has been doing procedures to organize international auction so work might just start on the stretch next year.
Once being built, Trung Luong-My Thuan-Can Tho expressway will reduce travel time from HCMC to Mekong Delta provinces, contributing in boosting socioeconomic development in the area and reduce traffic jam and accidents on the National Highway 1A.
