Minister of Transport requests technical traffic opening of Nghi Son - Dien Chau section on September 2nd

On the morning of July 28, a working delegation of the Ministry of Transport led by Comrade Nguyen Van Thang - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Transport inspected and directed the construction site of the North-South Expressway Eastern section through Nghe An province.

Accompanying the delegation, on the side of Nghe An province were comrades: Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Hoang Phu Hien - Director of the Department of Transport.

The North-South Expressway Project in the East section passing through Nghe An province has a length of about 87.84 km, belonging to 2 sub-projects: Nghi Son - Dien Chau section project and Dien Chau - Bai Vot section project. The project was deployed from June 2019, passing through Hoang Mai town and 5 districts: Quynh Luu, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen.

Realizing the importance of the project, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee have directed departments, branches and localities to mobilize the entire political system to participate resolutely, focusing on prioritizing the implementation of compensation, support and resettlement. Up to now, the project has cleared about 87.84/87.84km, reaching 100%.

However, there are still problems with one 110kV high voltage power line location, three medium and low voltage power lines, some unfinished residential roads, and some locally stuck agricultural land.

In the morning, Minister Nguyen Van Thang inspected the construction progress of the Nghi Son - Dien Chau sub-project. According to the report of Project Management Board 6, by July 27, 2023, the output value of contractors reached 93% of the contract value. The sub-project is expected to be technically open to traffic before September 2, 2023.

Currently, contractors have basically completed the base layers, foundation layers of the main route and the residential road; Hollow asphalt concrete (layer 1) for 46/50km of the main route (reaching 92%); C19 dense asphalt concrete (layer 2) for 43/50km of the main route (reaching 86%); C12.5 dense asphalt concrete (layer 3) for 28/50km of the main route (reaching 56%); Volume of asphalt concrete for each layer is 370,000/450,000 tons (reaching 82%).

In addition, contractors have installed guardrails for 50/100km (50%); installed median strips for 16/47.7km (35%); and installed steel fences of all kinds for 40/100km (40%). The local authorities have handed over the site to the service roads and contractors are currently constructing them.

After listening to the reports from the units, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang requested that the main road items must be completed before September 2, and the residential access roads must be completed before September 30.

The Minister assessed that along the entire route, there are sections that have been completed well, but there are still sections that are "not very secure". Therefore, contractors must agree on the principle of concentration, effort, and urgent completion to ensure progress. Any contractor that fails to ensure progress must be replaced immediately. A short section must not be allowed to affect the overall progress of the project.

"For contractors who do not complete on schedule, they will be handled according to the contract. In addition, these contractors will not be eligible to participate in the Ministry of Transport's transport projects, including those that have signed contracts," Minister Nguyen Van Thang emphasized.

The Minister also requested Project Management Board 6 to make daily plans, closely monitor and urge contractors to work in 3 shifts and 4 teams. In addition, the Management Board and contractors actively coordinate to complete internal tasks; the consulting unit actively reviews, signs and makes payments to speed up the disbursement of public investment capital.

The Minister of Transport also requested that, for the residential access roads, the units must pay attention and make maximum efforts to avoid affecting the exploitation of the main route and not allow traffic safety risks to occur. Nghe An province should pay attention and support in the work of site clearance at local points to avoid future problems.

Next, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang and his delegation inspected the 5km section from the expressway intersection to National Highway 1 under the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 7.

The project was approved by the Ministry of Transport in Decision No. 333 dated March 18, 2022; passing through 3 districts of Dien Chau, Yen Thanh and Do Luong; with a total length of about 27.5km and a total investment of more than 1,300 billion VND. As of the reporting time, the output value of the contractors was 278.5 billion VND, meeting the required progress.

In this project, the section connecting the expressway to National Highway 1 in Dien Chau district cannot be completed and opened to traffic before September 2, 2023 due to land acquisition problems. Therefore, Project Management Board 4 proposed to remove 2 urgent locations first to ensure traffic safety and avoid congestion when the Nghi Son - Dien Chau expressway is opened to traffic.

Specifically, at the railway overpass location: Expand the right-hand side access road to the end of the clearance to the railway location (additional 2.0m) and relocate the barrier to expand the railway intersection. At the intersection of National Highway 7 and National Highway 1 (beginning of the route): Currently, there is a 125m barrier of 15 households, in addition, on the right side of the route, from Km0 - Km0+800, the old road surface must be dug up to a depth of 70cm, making it difficult to ensure traffic safety for construction when the expressway is opened.

The reason is that there are problems in determining the origin of the residential land. On the other hand, the resettlement plan for 15 households at the railway overpass location has not been agreed upon.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung said that the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee have resolutely directed the work of site clearance and the removal of obstacles for the project of upgrading and expanding National Highway 7. Next week, the province will hold a meeting to listen to the site clearance plan to remove obstacles and speed up progress in the coming time.

After listening to the report, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang requested Nghe An province to direct strongly, mobilize the entire political system to take action, have a mechanism to remove difficulties and obstacles in site clearance, ensure legitimate rights for the people, thereby thoroughly handling these obstacles. On the other hand, the province needs to pay attention to building resettlement areas for households affected by the project.

At the scene, the Minister of Transport agreed with the proposal of the Project Management Board to expand the right-hand service road to the end of the clearance to the railway location (an additional 2.0m) and relocate the barrier to expand the railway intersection.