Ministry of Transport proposes to change investment plan for Cua Hoi Bridge

Comrade Huynh Thanh Dien, Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee confirmed the information and said that after being approved by the Government, investment procedures will be carried out before September 2 and Cua Hoi bridge will be constructed on September 2, 2018.

The bridge will be under construction for 1 year and is expected to open to traffic on September 2, 2019.

Accordingly, the plan to build the main bridge combining a cable-stayed bridge and a cantilever bridge, with a width of 16m and a total investment of 950 billion VND, will only be implemented within the scope of the State capital that has been balanced and arranged for the project. The plan to build the main bridge as an Extradosed bridge and invest in the form of public investment will be implemented about 1 year faster than the plan to implement in the form of BOT because it does not have to carry out the step of selecting an Investor.

Previously, the Ministry of Transport had a meeting with the two provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh and then the Ministry of Transport submitted a document to the Government stating that the investment plan to build Cua Hoi bridge under the BOT form was not suitable for the actual traffic situation in the area.

Model of Cua Hoi bridge across Lam river. Photo: Document

According to the document submitted to the Government, the investment in the construction of Cua Hoi bridge under the BOT form is difficult because it is necessary to arrange a toll station for road use services while there is already a toll station at Ben Thuy bridge on National Highway 1, which will affect the right of choice of people when they need to travel across Lam river, and it is difficult to gain consensus from local people.

Previously, toll collection was implemented for all subjects, however, recently, following the direction of the Prime Minister, to ensure more fairness for people around toll stations for road use services that travel many times, the Ministry of Transport has coordinated with localities and BOT investors to exempt and reduce fees for neighboring areas.

On the other hand, when the coastal route has not been connected, the vehicles passing through Cua Hoi bridge are mainly residents in the neighboring area, which will be exempted or have reduced road use service fees, thus reducing the ability of investors to recover capital, leading to the BOT project being financially inefficient and the level of interest of investors in the project also decreasing.

"Therefore, the Ministry of Transport and the two provinces agreed to choose the project investment form in the form of public investment," quoted from the document of the Ministry of Transport.

Previously, in August 2017, the Ministry of Transport approved the Investment Project Proposal for the construction of Cua Hoi Bridge on National Highway 8B, under the form of a BOT contract.

The project has a total estimated investment capital of 1,669.03 billion VND, of which: the State capital participating in project implementation is 950 billion VND (Central budget capital: arranged from the remaining capital of the projects to renovate and upgrade National Highway 1 and Ho Chi Minh Road through the Central Highlands section 450 billion VND; local capital of Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces 500 billion VND), the capital mobilized by the Investor is 719.03 billion VND.