Actively constructing the North-South expressway, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section

Investment component project for construction of Dien Chau - Bai Vot section under the Project for construction of a number ofhighwayon the North - South East route in the period of 2017-2020. The investor of the Project is a consortium of Hoa Hiep Company Limited - CIENCO4 Group Joint Stock Company - Nui Hong Investment Company Limited - Truong Son Construction Corporation - VINA2 Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company jointly implementing.

The project has a total investment capital of about 11,157 billion VND, of which the capital mobilized by investors is about 5,090 billion VND, and the State capital participating in the implementation is about 6,067 billion VND. By the beginning of February 2022, the investors had just signed credit loan contracts with banks to meet the BOT capital source. After overcoming the capital source difficulties, the project was simultaneously implemented.

Construction units of Than Vu tunnel section through Dien Chau. Photo: Tran Chau

At this time, in areas where the clean land has been handed over, units are gathering materials, machinery, equipment and mobilizing maximum human resources to urgently implement construction. Every day, the volume of excavation and filling reaches tens of thousands of cubic meters of earth and rock. At the bidding packages, there is always the bustling sound of machinery, hundreds of workers are present to receive their tasks. Because this year the weather is very unfavorable, with heavy and continuous rain, contractors must take advantage of favorable weather to make full use of time to construct, even taking advantage of the night, when the weather is cool to construct.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet - General Director of Phuc Thanh Hung Investment Joint Stock Company (project enterprise) said: The project has a total of 12 bidding packages, including 6 consulting packages, 1 insurance package, 4 construction packages and 1 equipment package. The project enterprise has implemented the signing of official contracts for 4 consulting packages, 1 construction insurance package and 3 construction packages, and a number of other packages are continuing to be implemented as planned. Currently, the project enterprise has completed the legal framework in accordance with project management according to regulations, including project coordination process, contractor selection regulations, quality management process and forms, etc.

In mountainous areas, contractors are stripping to lower the roadbed. Photo: Tien Dong

Regarding the difficulties and obstacles of the project, according to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Viet, currently the earth fill material mines basically meet the demand, however, due to uneven distribution, the transportation cost is high, some mines have much higher prices than estimated, making it very difficult for contractors. For sand mines, the reserves meet the demand, however, the exploitation capacity of the mines is low, contractors have to use many mines to meet the schedule.

In addition, the most difficult thing now is that recently the input prices of all types of materials have increased dramatically, especially the main materials for construction such as iron, steel, cement, sand, stone, asphalt, and labor... leading to the price of bidding packages increasing by about 13-15%. This is causing the total investment of the project to increase, making it difficult for businesses to implement the project.

To keep up with the schedule, contractors took advantage of favorable weather to start construction at night. In the photo, the construction of Hung Duc Bridge over Lam River connecting Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. Photo: Tran Chau

Currently, in addition to accelerating the construction progress, the project enterprise also directed contractors to focus on early implementation of the internal service road system and currently the entire route has constructed 40.30km of service road. To ensure the payment volume, meet the conditions for disbursement of loans and State capital contributions in June 2022, in the coming time, contractors will determine to mobilize more construction teams according to the established progress table, increase equipment at existing construction teams, organize overtime and especially must immediately add construction teams to handle weak ground and large bridge construction teams, such as in the area north of Than Vu tunnel, Xuan Duong bridge, Hung Duc bridge, QL8A intersection, etc.

It is known that so far, investors have contributed more than 647 billion VND for construction. According to the 2022 plan, investors must contribute more than 824 billion VND according to the construction progress to ensure counterpart capital and construction.

The North-South Expressway project, Dien Chau - Bai Vot section, passes through the following districts: Dien Chau (11.44km); Nghi Loc (7.14km); Hung Nguyen (25.88km) and Duc Tho (4.84km); Of which, there are 40km of agricultural land (accounting for 81.2%); 4.65km of residential land (accounting for 9.4%); 4.65km of forest land (accounting for 9.4%). There are 5,916 households affected, of which 1,194 households are in Dien Chau, 506 households in Nghi Loc, 3,633 households in Hung Nguyen and 583 households in Duc Tho.

Up to now, the Project Management Board 6 and the local land acquisition councils have cleared 49.22/49.30km (reaching 99.84%) and have handed over the project to the enterprise. There are still problems with the power line system on the route and 80m through a resettlement residential area in Hamlet 5, Nghi Dong Commune (Nghi Loc). After completion, the route 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 build a scale of 4 lanes, a 17m roadbed, and a design speed of 80km/h. Since the start of construction in May 2021, after 1 year of implementation, the shape of the expressway has gradually taken shape.

In the North, Truong Vinh tunnel has been opened. Photo: Thanh Yen.