Ensuring construction progress of the project to renovate and upgrade National Highway 1A

(Baonghean) -According to the Ministry of Transport, the entire National Highway 1A section from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa has been basically completed. The Dien Chau – Quan Hanh – Vinh City section will be basically completed by the end of 2013. The Ministry is directing the Thanh Hoa – Dien Chau section to be completed by the end of 2014.

Implementing the progress direction, currently, localities, investors, and contractors are overcoming difficulties and obstacles to ensure construction progress along the entire route. National Highway 1A running through Nghe An province has a total length of 73.8 km. Implementing the upgrading and renovation policy of the Ministry of Transport, the entire route is divided into 5 projects, assigned to 4 investors: Joint venture Company 4 and Company 319 are the project investors in the form of BOT, the section through Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu district, nearly 20 km long. PMU 85 is the investor of the section through Cau Giat town, 4.67 km long. PMU1 is the investor of the Quynh Luu - Dien Chau section, 18.9 km long. Nghe An Department of Transport is the investor of the Dien Chau - Quan Hanh section, 23.4 km long.

Currently, localities are looking for ways to overcome difficulties to speed up the progress of site clearance and handover to contractors for construction. According to the steering committee's report, by early September, the site handover to construction units along the entire route reached more than 52%. To ensure progress, localities must strive to speed up the site clearance. Quynh Luu district has more than 12 km in the National Highway 1 upgrading and renovation project, and has now handed over more than 5.45 km of site clearance, reaching 44%. To speed up the site clearance, the district has chosen the most difficult point to focus on solving: Quynh Van commune has 83 affected households, identifying this as a "hot spot", the district has focused on directing resolutely. The Standing Committee of the District Party Committee has organized a meeting with the commune on the content of site clearance compensation, concluded specific contents, assigned responsibility to the District Site Clearance Compensation Board, and the commune focused on resolving it completely. With the motto of enhancing dialogue, to make all people understand clearly, thereby creating high consensus, the District Land Clearance Board sent people to directly follow the grassroots to collect opinions and promptly answer people's questions.

According to Mr. Le Don Hoa - Chairman of Quynh Van Commune People's Committee, during the implementation process, the commune has compiled specific problems, classified them, and found practical solutions to achieve the highest efficiency. With the motto of dialogue, combining with all forces to propagate and mobilize... the "hot spot" Quynh Van has cooled down. 33 out of 83 households have signed the documents. The district and commune are focusing on mobilizing the remaining 50 households. The lesson learned in Quynh Van is that when the entire political system gets involved, along with reasonable and appropriate measures, all difficulties will be resolved.

Nghi Loc district has handed over 6.72 km of land out of a total of 13.96 km. In the past time, despite many difficulties in site clearance work throughout the district, the steering committee has focused on promptly resolving problems. Based on collecting opinions and recommendations from the people to find a thorough solution. The most prominent issue in Nghi Loc is resettlement. Highway 1A through Nghi Loc has a section of the route being straightened and a new road being opened, so many households have had to move to new places. The whole district has to build 6 resettlement areas.

By December 31, 2013, 4 areas will be handed over, and the district is carrying out procedures to construct infrastructure for the remaining 2 areas, and hand them over to households by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Previously, the people of Hamlet 4, Nghi Yen Commune, agreed to move into the resettlement area that the district had chosen, but later they disagreed. The district's Compensation and Site Clearance Board, based on studying the people's suggestions, changed the plan to suit the people's requirements. In addition, the district's Compensation and Site Clearance Board is also determined in the face of unreasonable demands from households. To ensure progress for the contractor, the district has developed a construction protection plan. In addition, in Nghi Loc, some other problems such as low compensation prices, demands for compensation for land outside the planning area, etc. are being focused on by the district to resolve.

Construction Company 484 is constructing National Highway 1A through Quynh Luu district.

Not only the localities where the project passes through, but also the contractors and project management board are speeding up the construction progress. Up to now, the Joint Venture of General 4 and Company 319 have excavated and filled more than 6 km of roadbed, and bored piles for all 4 bridges on the route. Engineer Nguyen Van Phu, Deputy Director of the Executive Board of Company 4, said: Currently, the company has handed over more than 50% of the site on the route. The company has deployed 7 contractors to work on 7 construction teams. These are professional contractors who have undertaken the construction of many large projects such as Nhat Tan Bridge, Hanoi Ring Road 3, Noi Bai Airport, etc. The experience and capacity of the contractors help the project speed up. Currently, it is the rainy season, the construction units are operating at a slow pace. In the dry season, the progress will be accelerated. Striving to shorten the construction time from 3 to 6 months. It is expected that the project will be handed over by the end of September 2014. To ensure progress, the investor also requested the district to hand over the site according to the proposed timeline.

In Dien Chau, we had a talk with Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ta, the construction site commander of package 1 of the project invested by the Nghe An Department of Transport. According to Mr. Ta, to ensure progress, the contractor has gathered the most modern equipment here: new generation paving machines, large vibrating rollers newly imported from Japan, large tonnage trucks... When the weather is favorable, overtime is organized, working 10 hours a day. In addition to overtime to ensure construction progress, the contractor also focuses on organizing traffic safety. Construction on routes with high traffic density is very prone to accidents. The contractor has also arranged adequate forces to promptly respond to situations that occur on the route. To ensure construction progress, the contractors have currently invested the remaining project costs equivalent to 40%. This is a way to share between the contractor and the State to ensure the progress of the project.

With the efforts of localities, project management boards, and contractors, difficulties and obstacles in the National Highway 1A upgrade and renovation project are being gradually resolved to implement the plan set forth by the Ministry of Transport.

Article and photos: Anh Tuan