RECOMMENDED TO UPGRADE EXPRESSWAY TO 12 LANES

The Ministry of Transport has just requested specialized agencies to immediately build a project on traffic to connect Long Thanh Airport with some surrounding areas. The Minister requested that the project must propose a number of transport axes connecting directly from the airport to HCMC via road and light railway.

According to the plan of connecting traffic with Long Thanh airport of Vietnam Airport Corporation (ACV), there are 3 routes directly connecting to the airport: National Highway No. 51; HCMC - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway (HCMC-LT-DG Expressway) and the route behind the airport to Ring Road No.4.

These are 3 very important main routes from Ho Chi Minh City as well as other big cities to Long Thanh Airport. According to the proposal of Dong Nai Department of Transportation, the HCMC-LT-DG Expressway needs to have an expansion plan soon enough to meet the travel demand when Long Thanh airport comes into operation.

Accordingly, the HCMC-LT-DG Expressway needs to expand the section from HCMC to Long Thanh. This section needs to expand to 10-12 lanes because it will not meet the demand if it has only 8 lanes.

HCMC-LT-DG Expressway approved by the Ministry of Transport for investment in 2007, divided into 2 construction phases. The First Phase is An Phu - Long Thanh section, built with 4 lanes for both roads and bridges; The road section has 2 additional emergency stop lanes. Phase 2 - the complete phase from An Phu - Long Thanh will expand to 8 lanes for both roads and bridges, the section from Long Thanh to Dau Giay will expand to 6 lanes.

In this regard, Dong Nai People's Committee also noted, if choosing to upgrade to 12 lanes, the plan must be submit early because it’s related to of land-use planning.

Meanwhile, in order to soon connect smoothly from Long Thanh International Airport to HCMC, the Transportation Development and Strategy Institute (under the Ministry of Transport) also proposed to build a light railway from Thu Thiem to the Long Thanh Airport and connecting with urban railway No. 2 of HCMC from Thu Thiem to Tan Son Nhat Airport.

This is the plan to connect 2 airports together. In addition, it is necessary to build Cat Lai bridge to connect Ho Chi Minh City with the provincial road No. 25C of Dong Nai with Long Thanh Airport, thus creating more connection with Long Thanh Airport.

At the same time, Dong Nai province is actively coordinating with the Ministry of Transport to accelerate the implementation of necessary legal procedures for the Ring Road No.3 project.

Accordingly, Ring Road No.3 of Nhon Trach - HCMC is 30km in length. The first phase will be built from the intersection of Thu Duc District (HCMC) to Road No. 25B in the center of Nhon Trach District with a length of about 17km. It is expected that in the second quarter of this year, it will start first section No. 1A from HCMC-LT-DG Expressway to road No. 25B.

Section 1A is nearly 9km long, of which 2km is located in HCMC, the rest is located in Nhon Trach District. The road is designed to build a 20m in width for 4 lanes of motor vehicles and 2 rudimentary lanes. Total investment is over VND 5,300 billion, including USD 190 million (Equivalent to VND 4,180 billion) borrowed from EDCF and nearly VND 1,150 billion of Vietnamese counterpart fund, of which the province's money paid for the clearance has reached over VND 470 billion.

In addition, when presenting the transport system connecting with Long Thanh Airport, Dong Nai Department of Transportation recently asked the provincial People's Committee to approve the construction of the road No. 25C from Huong Lo no. 19 (Nhon Trach District) to National Road No. 51 and section from Nhon Trach Industrial Zone to Ring Road No.3 (HCMC).

As planned, the Road No. 25C has a length of 14.5 km, the starting point connecting with National Highway No. 51 and the end point intersecting with the Ring Road No.3. More than 11 km at the end of the route has been under construction, especially the middle section of the route in the industrial areas has been completed while the remaining 3km of the first line connecting with National Highway 51 still has not been invested.

The leaders of Nhon Trach District also said that Road No.25C is very important as it passes through industrial parks as well as the urban area of ​​the district and extends down to Hung Vuong Road (Vinh Thanh Commune) and connects with other routes to HCMC.

(Source: Cafef)