HÀ NỘI — The traffic volume on the four expressways managed by the Việt Nam Expressway Corporation (VEC) over the past nine months increased 22 per cent over the same period last year to 27.4 million vehicles, VEC reported Tuesday.   

In the north, the Cầu Giẽ-Ninh Bình Expressway traffic grew 35 per cent compared to last year, with 9.7 million vehicles. Traffic on the Nội Bài-Lào Cai Expressway grew 25 per cent with over 6.6 million vehicles.

In the south, the HCM City-Long Thành–Dầu Giây Expressway was the busiest, with over 11 million vehicles, an average flow of 35,000-40,000 vehicles per day.

A 65km-long section of Đà Nẵng–Quảng Ngãi Expressway, the first in the central region, was just put into operation last August, and has served nearly 86,000 vehicles, with an average flow of 1,400-1,600 daily.    

Although VEC was facing with difficulties in controlling the growing transportation load, it has instructed member units to protect the road infrastructure, improve road quality and minimise maintenance costs.

In the first three quarters of the year, the number of vehicles that were banned from the expressways due to excess weight doubled compared to the same period last year, reaching over 2 million.

The management board of the 265km-long Nội Bài-Lào Cai Expressway, the longest route in Việt Nam, reported it banned a number of overloaded vehicles from the road, accounting for 1.86 per cent of the total vehicles examined.

Also in the past nine months, there were 63 traffic accidents on the expressways managed by VEC, mainly involving drivers who failed to keep a safe distance from other cars.

Of the six expressway projects invested by the VEC, four are already operational, totalling 415km. Two other projects are under construction, the Đà Nẵng–Quảng Ngãi Expressway’s second section, and Bến Lức-Long Thành Expressway.— VNS