A road section in Hải Dương City of Hải Dương Province was covered by new asphalt layers. — VNA/VNS Photo Việt Hùng

HÀ NỘI — A 800m stretch of seriously degraded road on the National Highway 5 running through Hải Dương Province in the north has been completely repaired, according to the National Highway 5 Management Board.

This was a part of the project repairing and upgrading National Highway 5 after more than 20 years of operation.

The repair of the road started in September and included removing the old road surface and replacing it with two layers of polymer asphalt concrete which is resistant to vehicle wheel traces.

The project to repair and upgrade 30km of roads on the National Highway 5 consists of seven bidding package.

The project is invested by Việt Nam Infrastructure Development and Finance Investment Joint Stock Company (VIDIFI) with nearly VNĐ840 billion (US$36.3 million) and is set to be completed by the end of next year.

“Due to the large volume of vehicles and many large trucks, the road surface of the highway was severely damaged,” said Phạm Việt Sơn, VIFIDI’s vice general director.

“Therefore, our company is realising the packages to repair and upgrade the highway as soon as possible,” Sơn said.

The other packages of repairing and upgrading will be carried out this month and in the first quarter next year, he said.

“In order to speed up the project’s progress, VIDIFI suggested the Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam accelerate the appraisal and approval of the design and cost estimate, and construction permit grant,” the vice general director said.

“Because the repair and upgrade works were done with the road in operation with a very large volume of vehicles, especially trucks and container trucks, VIDIFI really needed the co-operation of agencies to ensure safe traffic,” he added.

Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam urged VIDIFI to urgently speed up the implementation of the repair and upgrade packages and warned toll collection would be stopped if the repair work was not well done.

Meanwhile, Tạ Quang Vĩnh, an expert from the Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam, said repairing and upgrading the whole highway faced many difficulties because there were hundreds of residential areas and industrial zones along the road.

“There were still many cases of traffic safety corridor encroachment on the highway. So, local authorities should continue to have solutions together with management agencies to solve these violations,” said Vĩnh.

The National Highway 5 has a total length of 100km starting from Hà Nộ running through Hưng Yên and Hải Dương provinces and ending in Hải Phòng City.

At present, the number of vehicles on the highway is about 50,000 per day, triple the designed capacity.

That is also the reason why this route is seriously degraded after more than 20 years in operation.

This is the first time this route has been overhauled, upgraded and repaired. — VNS