Ministry of Construction proposes investment to expand North-South expressway to 6 lanes

According to the plan, the North-South Eastern Expressway starts at Huu Nghi Border Gate, Lang Son Province, and ends in Ca Mau City, with a total length of about 2,055km (accounting for 22% of the total length of the expressway network), with a scale of 6-12 lanes. To date, the entire route has been put into operation for 1,206km, and is under construction for 834km (to be completed in 2025, except for the Huu Nghi-Chi Lang border gate section, which is 43km long).

Currently, the North-South Eastern Expressway Investment Projects for the 2017-2020 and 2021-2025 periods have 1,163km of limited 4-lane investment (roadbed width 17m); 99km are in operation with a complete 4-lane scale; 113km are being invested in expanding the 4-6-lane expressway scale.

The completion of the entire Eastern North-South Expressway by 2025 will promote the connection of economic and political centers and key economic regions, gradually perfecting the infrastructure system to create a spillover effect to promote socio-economic development, ensure national defense and security, and contribute to the implementation of strategic breakthroughs set forth by the 13th National Party Congress.

The Eastern North-South Expressway will promote connectivity between key economic regions.

The expansion plan to 6 lanes has more advantages than the expansion plan to 4 complete lanes. In case of investment, the Ministry of Construction recommends expanding to 6 lanes according to the planning scale.

Regarding the scope, to facilitate construction work, speed up investment progress, disbursement, and meet transportation needs, the Ministry of Construction will initially consider the scope of the North-South expressway in the East, Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City section, with an investment length of about 1,144km and a preliminary total investment of about 152,135 billion VND.

Sections that have not been studied for expansion, such as the 149km My Thuan-Can Tho-Ca Mau section, currently have low transportation demand; difficult construction conditions; and current shortage of materials will affect progress and increase investment costs. Expansion investment will be implemented as a separate project.

The North-South Expressway in the 2021-2025 period is under construction. If additional capital is needed to expand to a scale of 6 lanes, the total investment will exceed. The leader of the Ministry of Construction said that it is necessary to adjust the policy and adjustment authority.

When adjusting the investment policy, the Ministry of Construction proposed that the Prime Minister report to the National Assembly to allow the extension of the scope including phase 1 to apply common specific mechanisms to accelerate progress and take advantage of available human resources at the construction site, including: allowing the appointment of contractors for consulting and construction packages (in which priority is given to units that have participated in the construction of the corresponding sections of the route before); allowing construction contractors to not have to carry out procedures for granting licenses to exploit minerals for common construction materials; allowing the simultaneous implementation of project preparation and technical design, cost estimates, bidding documents, and request documents.

The Ministry of Construction also provided the expected progress after applying specific mechanisms and policies, reporting to the Politburo on the investment expansion policy in April 2025; approving the investment policy/adjustment in June 2025 (submitting to the National Assembly for approval at the May 2025 session); approving component projects in September 2025; approving technical design and budget in November 2025 and starting construction of the project in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Giao-thong/bo-xay-dung-de-xuat-dau-tu-mo-rong-cac-tuyen-cao-toc-bac-nam-len-6-lan-xe--i762879/