North-South Expressway, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section: Construction starts simultaneously

All out

The North-South Expressway Project, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section, is about 50 km long, passing through Nghe An (44.4 km) and Ha Tinh (4.9 km) provinces. The total investment capital of the project is about 11,157 billion VND, of which the capital mobilized by the investor is about 5,090 billion VND, the State capital participating in the implementation is about 6,067 billion VND. The project construction time is about 3 years, the operation time to recover capital is about 16 years, 6 months and 8 days.

The North-South expressway project, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section, is about 50 km long, passing through Nghe An (44.4 km) and Ha Tinh (4.9 km) provinces.

The project will have a scale of 6 lanes, a 32.25m roadbed, and a design speed of 100 - 120 km/h. In the immediate future, in the phased phase, the project will have a scale of 4 lanes, a 17m roadbed, and a design speed of 80 km/h.

These days, the construction site of the North-South Expressway Project, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section, has become bustling with the sound of machinery and hundreds of workers of the joint venture of contractors: Hoa Hiep Company Limited, Cienco4 Group Joint Stock Company, Nui Hong Investment Company Limited, Truong Son Construction Corporation, and VINA2 Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet - General Director of Phuc Thanh Hung Investment Joint Stock Company (Project Enterprise) said that the Project has a total of 12 bidding packages, including 6 consulting packages; 1 insurance package; 4 construction packages and 1 ITS equipment package.

The Project Enterprise has officially signed contracts for 4 consulting packages (package TV-01 "Supervision consulting"; TV-02 "Survey to establish TKBVTC", TV-04 "Consulting on environmental monitoring and supervision during construction phase", TV-05 "Construction quality inspection consulting") and 3 construction packages XL-01, XL-02 and XL-03.

Ensuring quality, technique and aesthetics of the project. Photo: PV

Currently, the expert team and appraisal team are completing the procedure for evaluating the proposal documents for the XL-04 package. The documents are expected to be completed and submitted to the Project Management Board 6 for comments in March 2022.

In 2021, the construction of the ProjectNorth-South expressway, Dien Chau – Bai Vot sectionencountered some difficulties due to objective and subjective reasons such as site clearance work not yet completed; material mining is still in the licensing period; credit work is facing difficulties.

After clearing credit capital and signing credit agreements, the project enterprise and the contractor consortium mobilized maximum human and material resources to serve the construction.

Up to now, the above problems have been basically resolved. The project enterprise and the contractor consortium have deployed hundreds of machines and equipment to the site, striving to basically complete the construction of the roadbed, construction of service roads, drainage systems and underpasses in 2022. Basically complete the small bridges and common bridges.

After clearing the credit capital source, the project enterprise and the contractor consortium mobilized maximum human and material resources to serve the construction. Photo: NL

Currently, along the entire route, contractors have basically completed the construction site camp system, mobilized field management staff and deployed 21 construction teams, with 94 pieces of equipment.

For the Than Vu tunnel project, in March 2022, the People's Committee of Nghe An province cut down trees and gradually handed over the site to the investor and the Project Enterprise. Up to now, the Contractor has completed the service road system on both sides of the tunnel, approaching the tunnel to make a stage for tunnel drilling.

Regarding the project's site clearance work, Mr. Viet said that up to now, the project enterprise has received the handover of the site from the Project Management Board 6 and the local Site Clearance Council with a volume of 44.62/49.30 km (90.51%). The remaining site volume that is stuck is mainly protective forests, production forests and land through residential areas, technical infrastructure works, graves, etc.

Specifically, there are 65 remaining power line locations in Nghe An province that have not been relocated, including: 6 high-voltage power line locations related to weak ground treatment roadbed sections and 59 medium-voltage and low-voltage power line locations; 132 graves scattered along the route that have not been relocated; and 8 residential areas passing through Hung Nguyen district.

Currently, Hoa Hiep Company Limited has deployed 8 construction sites, the western construction site always ensures 20 people/site, equipment and machinery including 3 road rollers, 3 excavators, 2 bulldozers and 15 transport vehicles.

The representative of Hoa Hiep contractor also said that to ensure the construction progress, the contractor and the company's Board of Directors held a meeting and issued a resolution to each construction team to try their best to ensure the proposed progress.

“After clearing the credit capital, contractor Cienco4 is implementing the Hung Nguyen cape Km468 – Km473+400, mobilizing all equipment and human resources divided into 7 construction teams, including 5 bridges of 4 km of road including the left and right collector road systems. To achieve the progress, we have worked overtime, even at night to meet the delayed progress. Although the progress is accelerating, we are committed to not compromising the quality of the project”, Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung - Deputy Executive Director of the Hung Nguyen cape project (Contractor Cienco4) affirmed his determination to complete the project as planned.

High prices of raw materials make investors face difficulties

Sharing about the plan to implement the North-South Expressway Project, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section in the coming time, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet, General Director of Phuc Thanh Hung Investment Joint Stock Company, said that in the coming time, the project enterprise and the contractor consortium will prioritize accelerating the construction of service roads throughout the project, thereby connecting the service roads with major national and provincial highways such as N2, N5, QL48E, QL46A, QL46B, QL46C, QL8A... to transport materials and equipment for the main route and works on the route.

Workers of Hoa Hiep contractor construct Than Vu tunnel. Photo: PV

It is expected to open more bridge construction points including: Hung Duc Bridge (3 points), Song Dao 1 Bridge, N2 Bridge, Than Vu 2 Bridge, O O Bridge, tunnel entrance and digging the Northern tunnel, speeding up the adjustment of the Southern tunnel and construction points to handle weak ground on the route.

Affirming his determination to complete the project on schedule as directed by the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Viet also said that the unit is facing some difficulties in construction that may affect the project's progress.

“In particular, in the BOT contract that the investor signed with the Ministry of Transport, the depreciation cost is only about 300 billion VND out of the total construction capital of about 8,000 billion VND (accounting for nearly 4%). However, up to now, the prices of materials and raw materials that make up the project have increased very high (Asphalt increased by more than 20%, gasoline and oil prices increased by more than 50%, steel prices increased by more than 40%), leading to the depreciation cost up to this point being nearly 1,000 billion VND (accounting for nearly 12%). This is a huge impact, causing difficulties for investors and contractors. We are currently gathering these issues to report to the Ministry of Transport to find ways to remove and resolve them,” Mr. Viet emphasized.

The project enterprise also requested the Project Management Board 6 to report to the Ministry of Transport and the People's Committee of Nghe An province to further accelerate the site clearance work for the remaining locations, especially the protective forest area north and south of Than Vu tunnel; the bridge piers leading north of Hung Duc bridge (T6-T10); locations where high-voltage power poles are stuck, and weak soil needs to be treated, because these are identified as critical points for the project's progress.