The office of the Board of Management (BOM), located about 1km from the southern exit of the Thung Thi Tunnel, is the housing of employees working in Package 12-XL of Mai Son - National Road 45 Project. The office is the old primary school at the foot of Thung Thi mountain in Ha Trung district, Thanh Hoa province has been rented and repaired by Deo Ca Group.
3 shifts/day
Deo Ca Group leads of contractors consortium of the Package, including one road 6km long, one double tunnel 680m long and other works. Despite facing many difficulties due to the covid-19 epidemic, source and price of materials, the contractors consortium is currently deploying 8 construction arrow divided 3 shifts/day.
On the construction site, tunnelers are hard at work
We visited the Thung Thi Tunnel on a summer day in early July 2021. At 8 A.M, the sun spread throughout the construction site. Hundreds of engineers and workers hard at work. Their clothes were drenched with sweat and their faces were sunburnt by the severe summer climate in the Central region. The construction people, having the difference in their appearance and personality, are sturdy and reticent.
Mr. Dao Quang Huy, working at the Geology Team, shared: “I have worked in many projects. Workers obviously work hard everywhere. But the working and living conditions in the Group are much better than in elsewhere. Therefore, I, having a strong attachment to the Group for more than 5 years, worked in Cu Mong and Hai Van 2 Tunnel. And now, I work in Thung Thi Tunnel”.
The 57-year-old man, a native of Hanoi, has been attached to Deo Ca Group since he worked in national projects in the Central region. Mr. Huy said that: “Due to the success in Ca pass, Cu Mong pass and Hai Van pass, I feel that the conquering Thung Thi mountain 700m long is... "simple"”.
We visited the housing and realize how the living conditions is orderly. Each room here could accommodate up to about from 10 to 15 people. The BOM arranged bunk beds, washing machines, internet, televisions, water heaters, air conditioners and also supports 100% of the cost of food, fresh milk so that employees could take a rest comfortably and recove health after hard shifts at work.
Overcoming hardships
The construction of traffic works is a special professional affair, so construction people always face a number of difficulties and pressures of quality and progress of works.
Drilling of soil and rock, digging of tunnels, anchoring, erecting of arches, spraying of concrete require the ingenuity and meticulousness of engineers and workers when working and using comtemporary machines and equipments.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Thanh – the site commander said: "The nature of this work is inherently hard. On peak days, I worked about from 10 to 12 hours with my colleagues at the construction site. I have to be a support for other workers”.
Recently, the Covid-19 epidemic has spread and become unpredictable, ensuring the health safety of 240 employees working in the Package is the top priority for the BOM. Masks and disinfectant solutions are distributed to employees. Interregional transfer of workers is minimized. A number of engineers and workers who have not visited home since Tet holiday have stayed voluntary at the workplace in order to ensure the safety of whole people. For some cases that need to go out, they complied with the regulations on isolation as soon as returning to the workplace.
Workers are drilling soil and rock at Thung Thi Tunnel
The mute contribution of engineers and workers in the completion of major projects is huge. Many of them spent their entire youth at the construction site intead of with their families.
A worker Mr. Hoang Quang Dan confided: “I am the breadwinner in a family having 4 children. The first child has gone to college. The rest have gone to school in my hometown. Family expenses were very difficult when I had just woken up after more than 15 days in the hospital. However, I was regularly encouraged and visited by the company's leaders and was fully paid hopital fees by the social security agency. I thank the leaders of the Group for taking care of workers like me”.
Veteran Mr. Vu Sy Chien is one of the experienced tunnelers presented from the first day of digging Thung Thi Tunnel. Mr. Chien led us to the exit of the Tunnel, pointed to the vault and introduced: “The space in a tunnel mirror is only about 70m2, the tunnelers drilled and blasted, excavated, ventilated, reinforced anchors, completed concrete, ... by their experiences. All processes are scientific and do not overlap”. According to Mr. Chien, the mountain geology in Thanh Hoa province is different from the geology of the mountain ranges in the South Central region. "The rock here is more brittle, requiring carefulness and special construction methods", Mr. Chien said.
Mr. Chien is over 60 years old, simple and silent. Not many people know that he is a true veteran with a lot of creativity and persistence in construction.
Mr. Chien said: “I worked in Deo Ca, Co Ma and Cu Mong Tunnels. After Cu Mong Tunnel completed, I worked in Hai Van 2 Tunnel. After finishing Hai Van Tunnel, I went to Thung Thi. I heard that the Group continues to have another tunnel project. We will start out afer Thung Thi Tunnel completed. This man presented from the first days of major works of Deo Ca Group.
Day by day, the Thung Thi Tunnel gets longer and longer, creating a new look here. Up to now, the total construction length is 200m/1260m and 6.6km of the road. Geological difficulties were also overcome by the ingenuity of engineers and workers. Deo Ca Group is confident to complete the Package on schedule at the end of 2022.
By MANH CUONG – TRA MY
