Overcoming problems after operating Dien Chau - Bai Vot expressway

Lack of drainage ditches and lighting

These days, on the service roads running parallel to both sides of the North-South Expressway, from Dien Cat Intersection (Dien Chau) to Nghi Phuong (Nghi Loc) and from Hung Tay to the north of Hung Duc Bridge (Hung Nguyen), many machines are actively working. Workers are striving to complete the connection between residential roads and service roads and the culverts crossing both sides of the expressway.

Sharing with us, representatives of the Economic - Infrastructure Departments of Dien Chau and Nghi Loc districts said: After the expressway is put into operation, now is the time for contractors to construct and complete the frontage roads and residential roads. There are some problems that have begun to arise such as the expressway and the frontage roads have a fairly high elevation while the residential roads are low, so it is difficult for people living on both sides of the expressway to travel up and down. In addition, some connecting sections between the frontage roads and residential roads do not have drainage ditches or irrigation ditches according to the design, so when there is heavy rain, water stagnates and floods locally or there is no water for production.

On the other hand, some residential areas, typically residential area 5, Nghi Phuong commune (Nghi Loc), due to having about 700m of road running parallel to the highway fence without a service road, people have to travel to the underpass which is quite far away. Mr. Hoang Trung Thong - Chairman of Nghi Phuong Commune People's Committee, said: The Commune People's Committee has made a proposal to the construction unit, Truong Son 185 Company, regarding this issue... Another problem is that after completing the construction of the overpass on National Highway 48E, there is a lack of lighting system and especially the area under the bridge where there are people and vehicles, so it is quite dangerous at night.

Mr. Thai Ba The - Chairman of Dien Phu Commune People's Committee (Dien Chau) also shared: According to the design, the project only built drainage ditches for both sides of the highway to Xuan Duong Lake, but did not build drainage ditches for the service road or sewers when connecting to residential areas. Therefore, every time there is heavy rain, it causes local flooding in some production areas, especially 5 households in Hamlet 4 had their houses flooded during the recent heavy rain. Currently, the Commune People's Committee has reported to the District People's Committee and recommended that the contractor find a solution to handle the problem soon.

In addition to the above shortcomings, previously, on June 21, 2024, in Hung Nguyen district, the remaining 19 km of the newly completed Dien Chau - Bai Vot expressway had many shortcomings and were just starting to be addressed. Many communes and towns proposed the need to construct connecting the service road with residential roads and culverts and drainage ditches.

Flexible and timely handling of arising items

Based on practical requirements and recommendations from voters and localities where the expressway passes, on June 21, 2024, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Document No. 5192/UBND-KT to the Ministry of Transport to direct the consideration of solutions to handle problems arising after the operation of the North-South expressway, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section.

Also in Document No. 5192/UBND-KT dated June 21, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee, along with the preliminary report on the North-South expressway section Dien Chau - Bai Vot, the Provincial People's Committee compiled 32 accompanying opinions, of which Dien Chau had 5 opinions, Nghi Loc had 4 opinions and Hung Nguyen had 23 opinions surrounding new problems arising after the operation of the expressway. The recommendations of the localities focused on 2 groups, of which group 1 was the construction items included in the design but not yet completed or were constructed but not reasonable, causing problems that needed to be supplemented and edited; group 2 was a number of arising items that were not included in the design.

The connecting items from Dien Cat commune intersection (Dien Chau) to Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen) were completed before April 30, so there were few problems. Particularly, the section from Hung Tay commune to Hung Duc bridge still has many items that have just begun. For the expressway section through Dien Chau, due to the upcoming land clearance for VSIP Nghe An 2 Industrial Park infrastructure construction, there are some additional items, but if construction is carried out now, the clearance will be wasteful later, so the relevant parties are considering other solutions.

A representative of Hoa Hiep Company Limited, one of the contractors constructing the highway, said: After the highway is completed, each unit is assigning its members to complete the items of connecting people's lives, trying to basically complete it by September 2, 2024.

Regarding solutions to problems arising after the operation of the Dien Chau - Bai Vot expressway, for small items arising in the design and with a budget of 1 billion VND or less, each contractor can consider and adjust the construction source if reasonable and urgent. If items arising outside the design and the investment exceeds 1 billion VND, they must wait for the opinion of the investor, Project Management Board 6, Ministry of Transport to consider and decide.

Currently, some items that have arisen but have low budgets such as arranging drainage culverts across the slope connecting the expressway with the residential road in Dien Cat, Dien Loi, Dien Phu communes (Dien Chau) have been constructed quite actively. A contractor at the Dien Cat commune road construction site said that to lower the slope connecting with the residential road, the contractor had to add a lot of budget but the unit accepted and completed it quickly.

For civil works and items that are not included in the design and incur large costs, the Provincial People's Committee has sent a written report to the Ministry of Transport and Project Management Board 6. In the near future, based on the direction of the Ministry of Transport, the units will prepare additional investment projects and submit them to competent authorities for approval.

At the working sessions with the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee and localities where the expressway passes, the representative of Project Management Board 6, Ministry of Transport said: Items arising outside the design and having large investment levels that increase the total investment of the project must be considered and submitted to the Ministry and the Government. Therefore, we hope that localities will share and if approved, they will quickly adjust and supplement.

Talking to us, Mr. Le Manh Hien - Vice Chairman of Dien Chau District People's Committee said: The North-South Expressway project is a public-private partnership (PPP) project, so it is more difficult to adjust and supplement to overcome arising problems. The district's viewpoint is that when the contractors complete the construction of the connecting items for people, they will sign the documents to hand over the expressway. Meanwhile, Mr. Hoang Anh Tien - Vice Chairman of Hung Nguyen People's Committee also said that the district has created favorable conditions and coordinated for the contractors to construct the connecting items smoothly, requesting the contractors to prioritize resources and means to promptly overcome the weak points before the rainy season./.