A pavement is laid in Nguyên Hồng Street in Hà Nội.—VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The reasons for deterioration of paving stones in Hà Nội is that construction failed to meet technical requirements and the maintenance has been not given enough attention.

These were revealed at a regular meeting of the People’s Committee of Hà Nội last Friday as the story of pavement quality in the city has caused public concerns.

Trương Việt Dũng, chief of the committee’s Office, said at the meeting that recently, deputy chairman of the committee Dương Đức Tuấn signed a document No. 12540/VP-ĐT, sending to the Department of Construction, the Department of Transport and the people's committees of districts and towns to order them to correct the investment and management of local pavements.

The move came after the construction department conducted inspections on the quality of pavements in the city and the results showed that a number of pavements in some districts have been cracked and broken not long after being laid.

Under the document, the people's committees of districts and towns are told to strengthen inspection, supervision, management and use of pavements with proper functions; review and immediately end the use of pavements as parking spots for vehicles or gathering construction materials that cause damages and subsidence for the pavements.

The people’s committees of districts and towns have to report to the People's Committee of Hà Nội the implementation’s results this month, the document said.

Authorities and project investors have to take responsibility for reviewing and performing maintenance in accordance with law and quickly repair pavements that have cracked to ensure the quality of the work, the document said.

The document also requests promoting the supervising role of the community in the organisation of construction, management and use of pavements.

The construction department was assigned to coordinate with relevant agencies to carefully evaluate the causes of the deterioration of paving stones; propose specific, practical, effective and economical solutions to fix the situation; as well as standardise technical solutions and building materials to build pavements then report to the municipal People's Committee in the first quarter of next year.

Real situation

Since 2012, the city has implemented the project "Renovating and embellishing Hà Nội's pavements until 2020", the goal is to carry out the renovation and embellishment of pavements of 900 streets in 12 inner districts by 2020.

In 2016, the city continued to issue a number of new regulations on pavement improvement, then specialised units advised and got the approval from the People’s Committee of the city to the plan to use natural stones instead of traditional cement bricks to build pavements.

The natural stones are believed to have a sustainable structure with a lifespan of up to 50-70 years, making an important contribution to creating a new look in the process of urban embellishment and preserving cultural and public works of the city.

After six years of implementation, the city has 255 pavements built with natural stones, mainly in the districts of Ba Đình, Hoàn Kiếm, Đống Đa, Hai Bà Trưng and Thanh Xuân.

However, after only a short time of being put into use, the pavements have deteriorated quickly. Cracks could be seen along the streets of Nguyễn Chí Thanh, Giảng Võ, Nguyễn Trãi, Giải Phóng and Lê Văn Lương.

Thái Duy Sâm, deputy president of Việt Nam Association for Building Materials, told Kinh tế & Đô thị (Economics & Urban Affairs) online newspaper that there are many types of building materials to construct pavements in the market, including natural stones and stone-similar materials.

Therefore, it is necessary to check whether the quality of the building materials meet the requirements or not before being put into construction, he said.

It also needs to check the quality of the pavements' construction, he said.

If the construction of the pavements' foundation failed to meet requirements, the paving stones will be broken easily, he said.

Architect Trần Huy Ánh, standing member of Hà Nội Association of Architects, said if the construction process did not meet technical requirements, it will lead to subsidence and the stones might be broken after a short time.

In addition, there are some other reasons causing the situation, he added.

For example, many new pavements were built for less than 8-10 hours and cars and motorbikes still run on the pavements; people are found cutting pavements for their own purposes without permit of authorised agencies, he said.

In some places, cars are allowed to park on the pavements, in other places, some units pry the pavements to put cables underground and fail to meet the technical requirements when rebuild the pavements, he said. — VNS