Violations at Da Nang - Quang Ngai Expressway: State Audit "exposes and names"

Before the 34,500 billion VND expressway - a project invested by the Vietnam Expressway Corporation - VEC - had its road surface peeled off, revealing signs of poor quality construction, the State Audit pointed out a series of violations and recommended financial settlement of 410 billion VND.

Design adjustments without approval from the authorities

According to the State Audit document (KTNN) concluded on September 29, 2017 on auditing construction activities and management and use of investment capital for the Da Nang - Quang Ngai expressway project, the audited period is from the project implementation to March 31, 2017 and related periods before and after.

The State Audit report pointed out that the management regime for construction investment projects still has many shortcomings and limitations, namely: "The basic design is not suitable for actual conditions, so it must be adjusted during the implementation process."

Violations have caused the "billion dollar" Da Nang - Quang Ngai highway to deteriorate rapidly after only one year of use. Immediately after the "elephant" pothole appeared, the contractor patched the road using manual "technology".

Specifically, adjusting the route direction and longitudinal profile of 8 sections; adjusting the cross-section of the road (the width of the roadbed is adjusted from Bnè=26m to Bnè=25.5m; Bmặt=24.5m to Bmặt=24.0m); the cross-section of the tunnel (adjusted from B=12.75m to B=13.05m); Using the foundation structure, asphalt-reinforced macadam pavement (ATB) as the upper foundation layer for packages 3A, A4, weak soil sections and deep excavation sections encountering rocks; Using cement-reinforced macadam (CTB) as the upper foundation layer for the remaining sections to replace the upper foundation layer of macadam.

Adjust and supplement some large bridges and adjust the number of medium and small bridges on the route. Specifically, Ky Lam bridge adjusts the span diagram from 4x40m+65m+5x100m+65m+4x40m to 10x40m+65m+5x100m+65m; Chiem Son bridge adjusts the span diagram from 3x33m+55m+90m+55m+3x33m to 11x40m; Tra Khuc bridge adjusts the span diagram from 65m+7x100m+65m to 19x40m.

Arrange to extend the viaduct span with a length of 760m (package 3B) instead of 5 viaduct spans with a length of 150m. Adjust the number of bridges from 128 to 103 (reduce 25 bridges, specifically 16 bridges converted to underpasses, 1 bridge converted to box culverts, 5 bridges converted to road options, 3 bridges not designed due to investment adjustment of Tuy Loan intersection.

The State Audit Office determined that the above responsibility belongs to the project consulting unit (TEDI), the investor and the Ministry of Transport. This self-adjustment has been "named" by the State Audit Office for violations in the management of the Da Nang - Quang Ngai expressway project.

Capital increase, bidding not in accordance with regulations

The State Audit Office has pointed out many shortcomings in the survey, design and estimate preparation, appraisal and approval work. Specifically, in package 5, the geological survey report at pier P5 of Km39+645 bridge did not accurately reflect the actual geological conditions of the project, leading to the need to change the foundation structure from shallow foundation to bored pile foundation during the design process, requiring an additional cost of more than 1.2 billion VND.

Many sections of the Da Nang-Quang Ngai highway are peeling, forcing the investor to ask the construction unit to re-pave the road surface with concrete.

The appraisal and approval of the survey outline lacked the content of geological drilling at the reinforced retaining wall (MSE) location as prescribed, leading to the construction protection process due to changes in geology compared to the technical design documents, requiring the addition of a layer of rock to reinforce the MSE wall foundation at the Km34+240-Km35+040 section, with an increased cost of more than 3.7 billion VND.

In package 3B, the geological survey work has not yet discovered weak soil from Km18+100 to Km18+836. During the process of preparing the construction drawing design, additional survey and treatment of weak soil must be conducted, which requires an additional cost of more than 18 billion VND.

The State Audit Office discovered that there were design problems that caused the cost to increase, specifically in package A3, the design of the steel sheet pile ring construction method for some abutments of the overland bridge was inconsistent with the geological survey results (the foundation construction elevation was higher than the groundwater level, the construction location did not affect other works, the geology was grade 3 soil), which increased the estimated value by more than 13 billion VND.

The management of subcontracts is not strict and does not comply with the provisions of the bidding documents. Specifically: in package 1, the main contractor is the Cienco5 - Cienco1 Joint Venture, which assigned subcontractors to carry out the design and construction protection; the construction of some construction items with a unit price of 93 - 93.5% of the winning bid price (1.5 - 2% lower) is not in accordance with the provisions of the bidding documents and the provisions of the contract signed with the investor (in case the subcontractor is approved by the investor, the main contractor must ensure that the subcontractor's unit price is at least 95% of the unit price between the main contractor and the investor).

That is just one of a series of violations in construction and investment capital management that have been "exposed and named" by the State Audit Office. These violations have contributed to the signs that the Da Nang-Quang Ngai Expressway does not meet the expected quality.