HÀ NỘI – Many key routes in Hà Nội have been downgraded due to ineffective maintenance work, posing high risks of traffic accidents.

On Thăng Long Boulevard, a gateway to the west of the city, as many as 36 instances of the road subsiding and cracks were found on the 30-kilometre-long route.

A representative of Hà Nội Construction Investment JSC, one of two companies in charge of managing the route, said that the company was responsible for 21 kilometres of the route, and more than 8,500 square metres was damaged by the subsidence.

Notably, there was a 250 metre long subsidence, causing difficulties for vehicles on the route.

Other routes such as part of National Highway No6 passing Hà Nội, Thanh Trì Bridge, Thăng Long Bridge, and Belt Road 3, have been downgraded due to holes and waste dropped along the routes.

Lieutenant Colonel Đỗ Trọng Tuân, deputy head of the city Police Department’s Traffic Police Office No4 said that management units have repaired many parts of the routes, but there was a series of subsidence on Thanh Trì Bridge and Belt Road 3, posing traffic safety concerns.

On Thăng Long Bridge, the road surface has holes, despite the ministry spending hundreds of billions of đồng on renewing the surface, he said.

In addition, waste has been left along the routes. Domestic waste, building waste and rain water have been seen along Pháp Vân-Cầu Giẽ and Thăng Long boulevard. This has hurt the beauty of the city, he added.

Nguyễn Văn Nhi, deputy director of Traffic Construction No2 JSC, the unit in charge of managing the boulevard, said that the routes were being damaged by too many vhecicles using the road and severe weather.

Ineffective repair and maintenance work also contributed to the situation. The Ministry of Transport’s Highway Road Management Department has checked the maintenance of the road surface on the Belt Road 3 and Thăng Long Boulevard and found that it failed to meet the ministry’s standards.

Experts said that one of the biggest difficulties was a lack of capital for repairs and maintenance. For examples, there were seven subsidences on Thanh Trì Bridge, but the city’s Department of Transport Ngô Mạnh Tuấn said that they could only afford to repair three.

To ensure traffic safety, Nguyễn Quốc Tùng, head of the Highway Road Management Department has asked the city’s Department of Transport to work with agencies to strengthen maintenance work on the key routes of the city. – VNS