A map shows the Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu Expressway passing through Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu provinces. — Photo www.baogiaothong.vn

HCM CITY — Construction on a section of the Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu expressway project passing through Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province is scheduled to start in June next year, according to the province’s Department of Transport.

The 53.7km-long expressway running through the south-eastern provinces of Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu is a key national expressway project.

With an investment cost of VNĐ17.8 trillion ($758.5 million), the expressway will have four to six lanes in the first phase and six to eight lanes in the second phase.

It will require an area of 519ha and about 3,130 households must relocate.

It will be carried out under three component projects and is scheduled to be completed by 2025 and open to traffic in 2026.

Nguyễn Bôn, deputy director of the department, said the province has approved a steering committee to implement construction of the expressway section.

The expressway section in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu has a length of 19.5km.

About 70 per cent of land required for construction of the section had been handed over to the contractor.

The province has also directed relevant units to urgently prepare two resettlement areas in Long Thành District and Biên Hòa City.

The expressway is expected to reduce congestion on National Highway No. 51 which currently serves as an arterial road linking the HCM City, and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu and Đồng Nai provinces.

However, National Highway No. 51 is becoming overloaded, causing more and more serious traffic problems.

In the past three years, increasing demand for travel by personal vehicles and freight transport has caused serious congestion on the highway, especially during rush hours on weekends and holidays.

The highway section through Đồng Nai now carries about 50,000 vehicles per day, up to four times the number of vehicles it was designed to accommodate, and the number of vehicles increases by about 10 per cent per year.

The number of serious traffic accidents, traffic-related deaths and injuries have also increased on the section.

A railway connecting the national railway system to ports and industrial zones in order to relieve pressure on road transport is also needed, according to traffic experts. 

National Highway No. 51 through Đồng Nai Province is overloaded, carrying up to four times the number of vehicles it was designed to accommodate. — Photo www.baogiaothong.vn

Special policy

The Government has approved a number of special mechanisms and policies to implement three key national expressway projects, including the Biên Hòa-Vũng Tàu Expressway, with a total investment of VNĐ84.4 trillion (US$3.6 billion).

The policy aims to speed up the implementation progress of these projects so they can be completed soon.

Accordingly, investment policy, appraisal and approval required for the entire project or component projects will be decided by the Minister of Transport and the head of the people’s committee where the project is located.

The Ministry of Transport and the people’s committees in relevant localities are tasked to simultaneously implement works related to compensation, resettlement support, identifying dumping sites for construction waste during the projects’ preparation period and cutting down the time to implement investment-related procedures.

The Khánh Hòa-Buôn Ma Thuột Expressway will pass through the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk and the central-coastal province of Khánh Hòa. The 117.5km-long expressway is expected to be completed in 2026 and officially open to traffic in 2027.

The Châu Đốc-Cần Thơ-Sóc Trăng Expressway will be 188.2km long, running through Cần Thơ City and the provinces of An Giang, Hậu Giang and Sóc Trăng in the Cửu Long (MeKong) Delta. The project will cost around VNĐ44.7 trillion ($1.9 billion), and is scheduled to be completed in 2026 and open to traffic in 2027.

The investment in building these expressways aims to meet increasing transportation demand, improve regional connectivity, solve traffic infrastructure bottlenecks in the southern key economic region, and exploit the advantages of the Central Highlands, the central coast, the south-east and the Mekong Delta regions, according to the ministry. — VNS