On Lunar New Year 2021, Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway will allow cars under 16 seats and cars under 2.5 tons to circulate from the beginning of the route (Than Cuu Nghia intersection) to the end of the route (An Thai Trung intersection). That is the direction of Mr. Ho Minh Hoang, Chairman of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company during the progress inspection on September 16, 2020.
According to Mr. Hoang, this temporary opening comes from the desire to share difficulties with people of the West in the situation of bad traffic jams on NH1 (section through Tien Giang province). This is not a compulsory term in the contract signed with the competent state agency Tien Giang province. “The signed contract between the competent state agency Tien Giang province and Investor does not include the term that we must open for traffic on this Tet. But under the direction of the Prime Minister and with the desire to serve the people, we pledge to open the route by the end of this year, serving the travel needs of people during Lunar New Year, contributing to reduce accidents and congestion. This is a voluntarily offer of investor in order to serve and share with Mekong Delta people, reducing the difficulty on their way back home to enjoy Tet holiday and way back to work ”, Mr. Ho Minh Hoang said.
Mr. Ho Minh Hoang - Chairman of the Board of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company, inspecting the progress at package XL19, An Thai Trung intersection.
Over the past time, the project has faced many challenges such as epidemic, droughts, saltwater intrusion, saline prevention dams obstructing the transportation of materials and the scarcity of sand, rock, and soil. All of these factors and some other arising such as design changes, adding frontage roads, temporary bridges in fact push up the materials price, increase construction cost. However, up to this time, the construction costs are still under control, not exceeding the total investment. The biggest concern which can affect the progress of the project is that the location of the toll station of this expressway as well as its scale has not been determined.
“We have overcome the difficult times due to the salt drought and Covid-19, but are still facing another challenge, that is the Ministry of Transport has not decided on the location of the toll booth so that we can design and construct on schedule to put the expressway into operation”, Mr. Ho Minh Hoang said.
Although the project enterprise (on behalf of the Investor) has repeatedly sent documents to competent state agency Tien Giang province, and during the third visit to check the progress of Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project (on July 31, 2020), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc instructed the Ministry of Transport to soon reach agreement with the investor and the People's Committee of Tien Giang province on the location of the toll booth for Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway, but until now there was no response on the location or scale of the toll booth.
Regarding the toll station, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong - Director of the Management Board of Civil and Industrial Construction Projects of Tien Giang Province said: Regarding the policy, Tien Giang province supports the opinion of Project enterprise is to put 2 toll booths at the beginning and the end of the route to match the current reality. However, regarding the state management regulation, we must receive the opinion from the Ministry of Transport but until now they have contributed no opinion.
After more than 1 year of construction efforts, the workload of Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project has reached nearly 65%, with 31/36 construction and installation packages already underway, the remaining 5 packages ( lighting, toll booth, ITS, ..) will be implemented according to the project schedule. Contractors conducted the testing of C19 asphalt paving at Than Cuu Nghia intersection and mass constructed in September 2020 at package XL04 and package XL19 at the end of the route from Km0+000 to Km0+550 to the right of NH30.
By MINH ANH
