Transport Magazine - After 2 years of “reviving” of the stagnant and “no way out” project, Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway was opened to traffic, creating a great joy for the Northeastern region.
Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway started traffic opening on September 29.
Solid foundation for development
With a series of set records confirming the ability to deploy the construction of “made in Vietnam” traffic, Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway began the traffic opening on September 29. The expressway has crossed the finish 3 months earlier than the defined schedule, and will begin to toll by 2020 when it put officially into operation.
The completed expressway will help “breakthrough” of expressway traffic from Hanoi to the Lang Son border provinces, connecting the biggest and important road economic corridor between Vietnam and China. In particular, travelling time is shortened down about 2 hours compared to 3.5 hours in the past.
Praising the efforts to create “feats” in the construction of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung acknowledged that Bac Giang and Lang Son Provinces, the Ministry of Transport and the Investor and agencies and units have made great contributions into the eliminating of stagnation, solving all the seemingly insurmountable problems of the project, thereby completion of this crucial “lifeblood” in a record time.
In opinions of Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, this expressway not only reduces congestion pressure on the National Highway 1, shortens travelling time, but also plays a role in assurance of national security and defense, creating a solid foundation to accelerate strongly economic development when goods circulation is significantly more convenient, as well as a “push” for tourism and service development, and so on.
Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung praised the efforts creating “miracles” in the construction of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway at the Traffic Opening Ceremony
In order to continue the “feats” achieved, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung asked the Investor to quickly complete the remaining items of the Project, ensuring the schedule and quality for official exploitation and operation. The local authorities of Bac Giang and Lang Son continue to carry out the tasks to ensure the effective exploitation of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project.
Currently, Bac Giang - Chi Lang Section is at about 30km from Lang Son City and is a bottleneck that needs to be removed soon. Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung asked the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with the ministries, branches and localities to accelerate the implementation of the Chi Lang - Huu Nghi Expressway Project and deploy the Dong Dang Expressway Project (Lang Son) - Tra Linh (Cao Bang) in the period of 2021 – 2025.
Feats of revival
Mr. Ho Minh Hoang - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Deo Ca Group Corporation shared about the “reviving” process of the project that was said to be “stillborn”, Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project was commenced from 2015, however, due to the poorness in human resources and management capacity of the investor in that period, the project was delayed nearly 2 years. As for June 2017, the component of National Highway 1 only reached 13% of output and the expressway component was not deployed.
The head of the investor at that time was Mr. Nguyen Van Duong (UDIC Company) was even criminally prosecuted in the case of gambling with high technology. The project fell into a complete stagnation, many contractors were on the verge of “insolvent” because they had advanced hundreds of billion of VND for the project implementation. Increasing debt, beyond control, some Contractors thought of going the death because of seeing no other way out.
Mr. Ho Minh Hoang - Chairman of Deo Ca Group Corporation shared the process of project implementation at the Traffic Opening Ceremony of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway.
In this seemingly desperate context, in June 2017, based on the report to the Ministry of Transport, the new investor of Deo Ca Group was invited to take part in proposal of implementation solutions and removal of the project’s obstacles such as adjust alignment, arrange public service routes, handle credit and finance, eliminate poor contractors, make disbursement for a series of contractors making them as “be between life and death”.
During 2 years of implementation, the project was “laid siege” with many troubles and consequences left from the former investor, especially in the sprint period, the incapable contractors have unfinished, not ended the works under the signed Contract. With the experiences from the previous national key projects, the new Investor had directed the qualified contractors to provide relief, thereby the project had been completed and creating trust for people.
More than 1 year ago, from March 2018, the National Highway 1 component was completed and put into operation to help to enhance transport capacity, reduce traffic accidents, and ensure traffic safety on the National Highway 1 of which a section passing through the both provinces of Bac Giang and Lang Son. However, the expressway component could not be deployed.
It is worth nothing that the Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway is not only “finished” ahead of schedule of 3 months but also compensate the progress that was delayed from more than 2 years ago. Meanwhile, this project has very difficult packages such as passing through mountainous terrain, talus stabilization solution is needed, etc.
The former Minister of the MOT Ho Nghia Dung also said that Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project has broken the inherent stagnation of the former expressway projects in Vietnam when no project could be completed ahead of schedule of 5 years.
In addition to the feats of capacity and construction time, Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project also set a record in the land acquisition of Expressway projects when handing over of the site up to 80% within only 6 months.
The newly built Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project is nearly 64km long, road surface of 25m wide including 4 lanes with a design speed of 100 km per hour and 2 emergency lanes. Total investment cost of the whole project is more than VND 12 trillion. The first end of the project is located at Km 45+ 100 (intersecting with National Highway 1 in Mai Sao Commune, Chi Lang District, Lang Son Province). The final end is at Km 108 + 500, connecting with the final end of National Highway 1, Hanoi - Bac Giang Section.
The Investment Policy of Bac Giang - Lang Son Expressway Project was approved by the Government under the official letter No. 2167/TTg-KTN dated October 30th, 2014 and the Ministry of Transport approved the investment under the Decision 1249/QD-BGTVT dated April 9th, in which assigned BOT Bac Giang - Lang Son Joint Stock Company as implementing of project including 2 components: National Highway 1 Component (strengthening of road surface of National Highway 1, Km1+800 - Km106+500) with a total length of about 110 km; and Expressway Component (Bac Giang- Lang Son Expressway Section of Km45 + 100 - Km108 + 500).
From now until the beginning of 2020, the expressway has not yet been tolled and will start tolling from the beginning of 2020 to 2037. It is expected that the minimum toll is 2,000 VND/km for less 9 seat-car and maximum is 7,200 VND/km for the heavy lorry.
By VU THANH VU
http://www.tapchigiaothong.vn/cao-toc-bac-giang--lang-son-thong-xe-voi-dieu-ky-tich-av81653.html
