Exactly 15 years ago, on the morning of June 5, 2005, Hai Van Tunnel - the largest tunnel in Southeast Asia - was officially put into use. At that time, Hai Van tunnel was evaluated to have great significance, creating the driving force for economic development of the Central provinces and the whole country and being an important traffic work on the route connecting East-West economic corridor between Vietnam - Laos - Thailand - Myanmar.
However, to become a fully optimized project, it took 15 years and that mission was laid upon Deo Ca Group’s shoulders. The destination is very close.
15 years value
In the 80-90s of the last century, accidents happened almost every day on Hai Van mountain pass, causing numerous deaths and injuries. The small temples for the unfortunates grew densly along the road. Although Hai Van pass road was upgraded, repaired and expanded, the Death is always lurking on those who cross the pass.
In 2005, the operation of the tunnel through Hai Van mountain ended the “unique position” of the pass road, Hai Van Quan became a tourist destination. The latest statistics from Hai Van Tunnel Management Center show that, since the tunnel 1 was put into operation, there have been 32,229,273 vehicles safely passing through the tunnel.
Hai Van Tunnel
The house of Mr. Nguyen Van Can, a senior revolutionary officer, is nearby Hai Van mountain’s base. Nearly 90 years old living at the foot of the pass, now at the sunset of the life, he could witness an unexpected change. Dedicating the whole youth to the war, Mr. Can returned to his hometown when the battlefield stopped gunfire. Honored to be awarded many noble awards by the Party and the State, including the First-Class Resistance Medal and a 55-year-old Party Badge in this year, but for this senior citizen, the most exciting thing is to pass through Hai Van mountain for the first time in 2005, when tunnel came into operation after many years of construction. “Only Lang Co people who have to cross the pass to visit relatives in Danang could see the value of the miracle”, Mr. Can said.
“When the government was preparing to dig the road through Hai Van mountain (Hai Van tunnel), I wondered when it could be finished, I only expected to live long enough to witness the construction. But now Vietnamese people are about to finish the second tunnel. Lang Co people will benefit the first from this project”, Mr. Nguyen Van Can said.
Deo Ca Group and the mission of completing the century project
Mr. Vo Ngoc Trung, Director of Hai Van Tunnel Operation & Management Factory, said that over the past 15 years, the firm has timely rescued for 11,858 broken vehicles stopped in the tunnel, 130 vehicles had accident in the tunnel, 180 vehicles had accident on leading roads outside tunnel, 58 vehicles burnt inside and 19 vehicles burnt outside tunnel.
Operation center of Hai Van tunnel
In the pass time, although Operations & Management Center has well responded to the accidents, some are rescued in only few minutes. However, Mr. Trung confided: “Prolonging this situation is unstable, the second tunnel must be built as soon as possible”.
More than ever, the project of expanding the road tunnel through Hai Van Pass is looked upon to be soon completed to put into operation, minimizing traffic accidents and contributing to the development of South – North trading. The importance of early constructing the second Hai Van tunnel was set and considered as a “rescue” from inside the mountain.
The stage 1 of project expanding Hai Van tunnel is to repair, upgrade Hai Van 1 tunnel and improve National Road 1 section through Hai Van pass. Stage 2 is to expand the evacuation tunnel into a traffic tunnel (Hai Van 2 tunnel) with a scale of 4 lanes and expand leading bridges and roads with 4 lanes also. Stage 1 has been completed and stage 2 is sprinting to the finish line, expected to be put into operation by the end of 2020.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Chung - Chairman of Vietnam Association of Road System Investors, former Director of State Department of Construction Inspection (Ministry of Construction) said: “Due to the underestimation of traffic flow through the tunnel, in phase 1, Hai Van tunnel is designed with both directions in 1 tunnel. However, the country's development and economic growth have resulted in an extremely rapid increase of traffic flow, surpassing the forecasted overload point of Hai Van 1 is after 2025, posing an urgent need to complete the second tunnel in order to minimize accident, avoid traffic jams, ensure safety and save the time through the tunnel, etc. the operation of the second tunnel will solve these problems”.
Assoc.Prof. Dr. Tran Chung said: “Vehicles run 2 lanes 1 direction in the tunnel will overcome the current limitations of traffic organization and operation management of Hai Van 1 tunnel. On the other hand, when the vehicles are running same direction in 1 tunnel, the air in the tunnel is always circulated thanks to the piston effect so there is no need for electrostatic precipitator, toxic gas suction and fresh air supplying devices and therefore, it’s calculated that the operating cost can be reduced by 40% compared to Hai Van 1 tunnel”.
Ministry of Transport has also evaluated that the second component of the project will contribute to ensure the operation and exploitation capacity of Hai Van tunnel in the coming time, especially in the context of growing traffic flow up to 10 - 15%/year, preventing overloading in Hai Van 1 tunnel, at the same time synchronizing the 4 lanes scale on entire of the National Road 1.
After nearly 4 years of construction with about 600,000m3 of stone has been removed, more than 6.2km of tunnels were dug, so far, items such as excavation, reinforcement, concreting tunnel wall, concreting road surface and foundation, maintenance roads ... were basically completed. Along with that, the leading bridges and roads at the northern and southern entrances are also asphalt paved of more than 90%.
The mechanical and electrical equipment systems, intelligent transportation systems and fire protection ... mostly ordered from Europe have gathered over 90%, nearly 70% of which have been installed in tunnels.
At the northern entrance in Thua Thien Hue province, lighting and drainage systems, tiling wall and the alley between the two tunnels are about to be completed.
By the end of 2020, when Hai Van tunnel system is completed, the problem of Hai Van accident black spot will be minimized, pushing the miserable memory back into the past, opening up trade opportunities for Hue - Da Nang, for the Central region and for the whole country.
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