NGHỆ AN – The construction of Provincial Road 537 was completed just recently, but the section passing through Yên Thành District’s Hợp Thành Commune has already developed huge cracks and started caving in.

Now, machines and workers have been deployed by the road contractor to the site for repairs.

In the beginning of this month, An Toàn Giao Thông (Traffic Safety) newspaper had reported that the road, also known as Road No 33, was ready and open to traffic.

The 21km Provincial Road 537 upgrade project was approved by the provincial People’s Committee at a total cost of VNĐ95 billion (US$4.2 million). 

Within weeks, the section from Village 1 to Village 3 in Hợp Thành Commune got severely damaged. Though it is just a half-kilometre stretch, the road has developed numerous cracks and there’s subsidence, that is, a part of the road has sunk below ground level. The worst-affected section is in Village 3, where there are cracks running up to dozens of metres.

Local residents said they don’t understand why the road has got so badly damaged.

“It is the main route in the district’s east region, passing through numerous communes, with busy traffic flow. Within just a couple of months [since its completion], it has cracked and sunk in, which can cause accidents,” a resident of Village 3 said at a meeting between locals and government officials. “The contractor is carrying out repairs, but the authorities must look into why the damages happened and where the responsibility lies.”

Lê Hồng Trường, vice chairman of Hợp Thành Commune People’s Committee, confirmed the state of the road. According to him, the 2km section from Lý Nhân village to Phú Thành Commune has also got damaged. “There could be many reasons for this, including a weak roadbed. During construction, the contractor did do ground consolidation, but apparently it has not worked. We have asked the contractor to resolve the issue quickly.”

Trần Văn Tuấn, director of the management board of all construction projects in Yên Thành District, said that except for the section passing through Hợp Thành Commune, Provincial Road 537 is complete and has been handed over. He said the ground consolidation work was done when the road was being built, but as it is mostly mud below the foundation, there were several weak points that caused the cracks and subsidence. —VNS