Ministry of Transport identifies 5 expressways that need to be upgraded soon

On the afternoon of March 2, at the regular Government press conference in February, leaders of the Ministry of Transport informed the press about the situation of accelerating the upgrading of the two-lane investment phased road.

Accordingly, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Duy Lam said that on February 21, 2024, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch 16 on accelerating research and investment in upgrading expressways with special investment phases, especially two-lane expressways.

Implementing the Prime Minister's direction, the Ministry of Transport has seriously and focused on implementing a series of tasks. First of all, the Ministry has proactively directed the Ministry's functional agencies to urgently review and research, focusing on completing the traffic infrastructure system and traffic organization plan to improve operational safety on expressways with 2 or 4 lanes and intermittent emergency lanes as well as other expressways and national highways.

Based on the results of the review and assessment, the Ministry will make additional adjustments to the system of markers, signs, paint lines, street lights, and traffic speed plans on the route to ensure the most convenient and safe travel for people.

Policy - Ministry of Transport identifies 5 expressways that need to be upgraded soon — Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Duy Lam.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport has coordinated with the Traffic Police and local police to strictly handle traffic participants who violate traffic safety laws.

In order to have a basis for investment in construction and management of expressways, the Prime Minister has directed the urgent development of national standards for expressways. To carry out this task, the Ministry has directed the competent agencies under the Ministry of Transport to urgently study the draft national technical standards for expressways.

“We have now completed and sent it to the Ministry of Science and Technology for review. After this step, we will complete and issue it in the first quarter of 2024,” Mr. Lam informed.

With the task of developing a plan to upgrade the investment-phased expressways assigned by the Prime Minister, the Ministry has sent a document to the People's Committees of the provinces and cities assigned to manage the investment-phased expressways; to the Capital Management Committee at enterprises with enterprises managing the investment-phased expressways with two lanes and the Project Management Boards of the Ministry of Transport as project investors to urgently review, study and propose investment plans to expand these routes in a complete direction. Then send it to the Ministry of Transport to synthesize and report to the Prime Minister in March.

“Through statistical synthesis, we have determined that there are 5 expressways currently in operation with a scale of 2 lanes that need to be upgraded soon. This is the number 1 priority,” Deputy Minister Lam emphasized, adding that the diverging routes with 4 lanes and intermittent emergency lanes will continue to be balanced and upgraded when resources are available.

Specifically, for the 5 routes with two lanes that need to be upgraded, the La Son - Hoa Lien route, the Ministry has reported to the competent authorities and has been allocated capital from the increased central budget revenue in 2022 and is currently submitting the investment policy to the Prime Minister to complete the procedures. The Ministry will try to start construction by the end of this year and complete it by the end of 2025, early 2026.

With the Hoa Lac - Hoa Binh route, currently operating at a scale of 2 lanes and planned to have 6 lanes, the Prime Minister assigned the People's Committee of Hoa Binh province to be the managing agency and invest in the form of PPP. Currently, Hoa Binh has approved the investor to adjust the investment method to expand the route.

With the Yen Bai - Lao Cai section of the Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway invested by VEC (under the Capital Management Committee), the Capital Management Committee will direct VEC to study the expansion of the Yen Bai - Lao Cai section according to the planning scale.

Regarding the two expressways Thai Nguyen - Cho Moi and Cam Lo - La Son, the Ministry has also directed the two Management Boards as investors to urgently propose capital sources and investment methods to expand these two routes.

At the meeting, Minister and Head of the Government Office Tran Van Son said that recently the Prime Minister has given many instructions related to the construction of expressway infrastructure, including directing the Ministry of Transport to issue expressway standards and upgrade expressway routes in the first quarter.

"As Deputy Minister Lam stated, if the highway standards are completed in the first quarter, we can be completely assured," said Mr. Son .

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