"Taking the pulse" of Vinh city's traffic infrastructure

(Baonghean) - Recently, traffic congestion has often occurred on the streets of Vinh City, especially during rush hour. Although not as serious as in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, it is a sign of overload in terms of population density and traffic vehicles in the city.

At rush hour, on Dinh Cong Trang Street, right after the school bell rings to end the school day, groups of students rush out of the school gate, hundreds of motorbikes and cars of parents picking up their children block the road. Therefore, traffic jams occur. This happens frequently when students of Le Mao Primary and Secondary School leave school. Although the ward police and urban regulation team have stepped in to direct and direct traffic, the situation has not improved. In the same situation, people and vehicles are congested at intersections on Ngu Hai, Nguyen Van Cu, Le Hong Phong Streets... at intersections.

Dinh Cong Trang Street (Vinh City) on the afternoon of March 30.

One of the reasons for the above situation is that in recent years, the number of cars has increased so rapidly that traffic jams have become more common. If in 2013, the whole province had 4,843 cars and 16,129 motorbikes newly registered, in 2014, there were 5,797 cars and 8,875 motorbikes newly registered. This shows that motorbikes have shown signs of saturation, instead, people have an increasing demand for purchasing and using cars, especially in the city area. Currently, the total number of vehicles managed by the Traffic Police Department, Provincial Police in the province is 62,295 cars and over 1 million motorbikes. With the current growth rate of automobiles, if there is no forecast and early development of traffic infrastructure plans, no solution to limit personal vehicles, in the near future, Vinh City will face difficult problems of traffic congestion like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, affecting trade and socio-economic development.

In order to reduce traffic congestion, Vinh City People's Committee has sent a document to the Provincial People's Committee requesting a pilot traffic diversion policy allowing cars to travel in one direction only on Dinh Cong Trang and Dang Thai Than streets; at the same time, the city has developed a Project "Developing technical infrastructure and urban beautification of Vinh City in the period 2014 - 2020". Currently, the total length of Vinh City's main road network is 524.0 km. In general, the traffic system is planned completely and synchronously through each period, arranged in a continuous and closed manner. Compared to many urban areas, Vinh City's traffic is assessed as well planned, with clear roads and sidewalks. The main streets have a construction boundary of 15m, and the sidewalks on each side are 5m wide. Most of the roads in the city are paved with asphalt and concrete. The main streets have been built with curbs and sidewalks paved with self-locking cement bricks. The traffic safety system, street name signs, alley names, and house numbers are relatively complete; Visibility at intersections is guaranteed according to regulations.

However, the urban transport system has not been fully invested in and built, and is not synchronous. The compensation and site clearance work (BTGPMB) has not been thoroughly resolved. Many roads still have winding sections that have not been cleared and only the roadway has been invested but the sidewalk has not been cleared. This poses a huge obstacle in the future when land prices increase, it will be very difficult to complete the road and cause difficulties in arranging technical infrastructure. In the management work, there is still a situation where many excavations have to be done to build other technical infrastructure works. Many roads only clear the roadway or part of the sidewalk, so technical works such as electricity, water... must be located according to a temporary solution.

The management of the elevation between branch roads in residential areas and main roads in many places is still arbitrary: the lower elevation of the main road increases the risk of traffic accidents and affects the urban beauty. Meanwhile, the city has not yet built bus stations and parking lots according to the approved plan. These are: the Southern bus station in the area above Hoang Muoi temple (Hung Loi - Hung Nguyen); Nam Thanh bus station (Hung Thinh commune - Hung Nguyen); the Northern foreign passenger bus station in Nghi Kim commune; Vinh market bus station. 4 city-level parking lots including: the Southern parking lot (in Hung Loi commune - Hung Nguyen), the Northern parking lot (Quan Hanh town), the Western parking lot (Hung Tay commune - Hung Nguyen), the Eastern parking lot of the city (Hung Hoa commune) and 6 ward and commune-level parking lots have not been built yet.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Thang, Head of Urban Management Department, Vinh City People's Committee said: In order to invest in completing the system of technical infrastructure works in the inner city, expanding the urban space synchronously and modernly, meeting the requirements of the economic and cultural center of the North Central region, in the period of 2014 - 2020, Vinh City has had a project to invest in new construction, renovation, upgrading, management and operation, exploitation of the traffic system, urban technical infrastructure works, with a total investment capital demand of 11,351.2 billion VND from ODA and counterpart funds; Central, provincial and city budgets (land fund exploitation), enterprises, city, ward and commune budgets; Calling for investment in BT, BOT...

Accordingly, we will focus on accelerating the implementation of the Project on Development of Medium-sized Cities in Vietnam - Vinh City Sub-project (Component 3 - urban bridges and roads) including: Construction of Vinh - Hung Tay road (72m road); road connecting National Highway 46 with Lam River road (35m planning road). Focus on investing in main urban development roads such as: Le Mao extended road, East and West ring roads of the city, roads connecting inner-city roads to National Highway 1A bypass, roads to commune centers, Le Viet Thuat road... and continue to invest in upgrading and renovating inner-city traffic routes, unfinished roads... to contribute to accelerating urban development. "In the immediate future, to prevent traffic congestion, we are reviewing to open more than 10 right turns before traffic lights at intersections such as Vinh Station, Maximax, Nguyen Van Cu, Le Hong Phong..." - Mr. Thang said.

At the same time, to prevent traffic congestion, Vinh City needs to strengthen the connection of the public bus transport system within the city in a reasonable way. Only then can we limit the situation of personal vehicles that are increasing. In addition to strengthening planning and building synchronous infrastructure, in the long term, we also need to consider planning and building large-scale public passenger transport projects such as urban railways and electric trains to serve the travel needs of the people. It seems that this is a large amount of work that requires great efforts not only for the city's departments and branches.

Thu Huyen