The Ministry of Transport has fined contractors involved in the National Highway 1 and National Highway 14 projects.

The Ministry of Transport has just issued a decision to penalize a number of contractors and criticize the management boards and construction supervision consultants at the project to renovate, upgrade, and expand National Highway 1 and National Highway 14 for violations and shortcomings in ensuring traffic safety, labor safety, and environmental hygiene.

Construction work is underway to renovate, upgrade, and expand National Highway 1 through Quang Tri province. (Photo: Ho Cau/VNA)

According to the Ministry of Transport's assessment, despite numerous directives instructing units to strictly implement measures to ensure traffic safety, labor, and environmental hygiene, the units have not seriously complied, resulting in shortcomings such as incomplete construction organization plans; parallel construction on both sides of existing roads and construction overhangs not conforming to regulations; contractors failing to sign commitments with vehicle owners supplying and transporting materials and goods exceeding permitted weight limits; failure to organize periodic health checkups for workers; and continued traffic accidents due to inadequate traffic safety measures.

Based on that, the Ministry of Transport has imposed administrative penalties on 12 contractors working on the two projects. The Ministry also criticized Project Management Board 4 and the supervisory consultants for allowing several sections of the road surface currently in operation to be damaged or subsided without timely repair, posing a risk to traffic safety and resulting in numerous shortcomings and violations in traffic safety assurance.

Furthermore, the Ministry criticized Quang Tri BOT Limited Company and its supervisory consultant for their shortcomings in inspecting and supervising traffic safety, labor safety, and environmental hygiene for construction contractors, resulting in numerous violations; criticized Trung Phuong Limited Company and issued a warning to its supervisory consultant (533 Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company under Cienco 5) for numerous shortcomings in traffic safety, allowing multiple violations to occur, and resulting in administrative penalties for violations of regulations on construction within the road right-of-way; and for the supervisory consultant's failure to promptly advise and guide construction units on safety during construction.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport requires the Departments of Transport, investors, project management boards, supervisory consultants, and contractors of the projects to renovate and expand National Highway 1 and National Highway 14 to strictly comply with regulations when constructing works on roads currently in operation; review the approved traffic safety plans for the contractors; strictly control personnel, labor, vehicles, and construction equipment of the contractors; and strengthen inspection and supervision of the contractors.

"Investors and Project Management Boards are directed to instruct construction contractors to immediately rectify traffic safety measures throughout the entire project area, inspect and review the road width of ongoing construction on existing roads, and ensure adequate signage and traffic lights are in place; assign personnel to regularly monitor and regulate traffic during construction; strictly prohibit simultaneous excavation of roadbeds on both sides of the route causing congestion and traffic safety hazards; for sections where excavation has already been carried out on both sides of the route, the roadbed and foundation must be urgently constructed to the old road elevation to ensure safety," the Ministry of Transport's decision clearly states.

According to VNA