Road 7B or ... "neglected"?

(Baonghean.vn) - On these drizzly, windy days, visiting the communes on the left bank of the Lam River in Anh Son district, one can understand the hardships and difficulties in traveling for the people here. The main road connecting the communes (commonly called National Highway 7B) has become muddy. In recent years, the unfinished construction of Highway 7B has made traveling on rainy days even more difficult.

Coming to Vinh Son commune, reaching Anh Son suspension bridge (connecting Anh Son town with Vinh Son and Duc Son communes), we saw several people walking on the road with their shoes and clothes dirty, their motorbikes were also stained yellow with mud. Seeing us, one of them spoke up: "The road is muddy and slippery, you can't go anywhere by motorbike, it's best to park your motorbike here and walk." Following the advice, we went into a family's house near the suspension bridge to walk towards Vinh Son commune.

The road was about 5 km long, almost all of which involved wading through mud. Along the way, we witnessed many students falling on their way to school because the road was slippery, their clothes were covered in mud. As for the younger children, their parents had to take turns carrying them to class. Seeing us wading through the mud, the locals all looked at us sympathetically and then shook their heads in frustration. Occasionally, a few people spoke up: “The roads here are like that, only when you travel will you know our daily hardships.”

When will traveling on Route 7B no longer be a nightmare?

Knowing that we came from far away, Mr. Duong Van Vy (Hamlet 8, Vinh Son) said: "For a long time, people in Vinh Son and the communes on the left bank have been extremely upset about theThe construction of Highway 7B was abandoned halfway, turning the road into... fields. Traveling was extremely miserable. We had to take turns pulling the cart to take the children to school, and our business and production were delayed...

After finishing our own work, we waded back to the suspension bridge. Not in a hurry to get our cars back, we decided to continue walking about 5 km up to Duc Son commune to see if this road section was better or not. But then, after a short distance, disappointment suddenly came when we saw that the road ahead was no different from an endless swamp, traveling was much more difficult than the section down to Vinh Son. Mr. Nguyen Van Hung was scraping the thick mud in front of the gate, the weather was freezing cold but his face was dripping with sweat. He said: “We have to scrape this layer of mud to make it easier to go in and out of the gate. Here, every time we have to go out on the road, it is a nightmare. For more than a month now, my motorbike has been sitting in the house because the road is impassable. Now, calling Highway 7B a “neglected” road is more accurate.”

On the way back to the suspension bridge, we were accompanied by a female teacher from Duc Son Secondary School. Through conversation, we learned that her house is in Thach Son commune, on the other side of the bridge. On rainy days, the road is slippery and muddy, so she and her colleagues have to park their vehicles near the suspension bridge and walk about 5 kilometers to get to school. On days like that, she has to leave early and come back late. There were days when she fell, and her clothes, school bag, and lesson plans were all wet. She lamented: "I don't know how long we will have to wade through mud like this?"

Through research, we learned that the investment project to upgrade National Highway 7B was approved by the Government with a total capital of more than 200 billion VND and started construction in 2009. The project is 35km long, passing through the communes of Tao Son, Lang Son, Vinh Son, Duc Son, Hung Son, Dinh Son and Thanh Son, with the People's Committee of Anh Son district as the investor. The project was assigned to 6 contractors by the investor. According to the initial plan, the packages would be completed within more than 1 year, but due to problems in compensation and site clearance, lack of capital, after nearly 3 years of starting construction, it is still unfinished. Currently, the contractors have basically only stopped at leveling the road surface, making a few sections of ditches and drainage culverts.

It is thought that the People's Committee of Anh Son district and relevant agencies need to soon find a solution to overcome the above situation so that people's travel is no longer a nightmare, opening up routes to tea and raw wood growing areas as well as the consumption of agricultural products...

Tuong Anh