Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway is delayed again

Package J3-1 (remaining work of Package J3 Phuoc Khanh Bridge) is expected to start construction in March 2025 and be completed in June 2026 - Photo: TTD

In October 2024, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) submitted a document to the Vietnam Road Administration for approval of a traffic organization plan to temporarily put into operation two sections of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway in November 2024.

These are the 3.4km section from the Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong Expressway Interchange (Long An Province) to National Highway 1 (Ho Chi Minh City) and the 6.1km section from the Phuoc An Interchange to National Highway 51 Interchange (Dong Nai Province). However, up to now, these two sections have not been put into operation.

There is a road, when will it be exploited?

Responding to Tuoi Tre about why the completed sections have not been put into operation as planned, a representative of the Southern Expressway Project Management Board (the project management unit) said that the entire Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway has reached 89% of the volume.

The 6.1km section from Phuoc An intersection to National Highway 51 intersection (Dong Nai) has been completed but is waiting for competent authorities to approve the traffic organization plan.

The section from the Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong Expressway (Long An) to National Highway 1 (Ho Chi Minh City), 3.4km long, although completed, is still waiting for about 250m of the connecting section of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project through Long An province to be completed.

The section from National Highway 1 intersection to Nguyen Van Tao intersection is still planned to be put into operation before April 30, 2025.

In a recent urgent dispatch sent to Long An province, the Ministry of Transport said that during the site inspection on December 15, it was found that the remaining volume of the 250m long connecting item with the Ben Luc - Long Thanh project under the XL3 package of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project through Long An province was not much but had not been completed.

The delay in construction of the above section will affect the exploitation plan of the 3.4km long section of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway.

“In order to soon put the western section into operation to gradually complete the entire Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway, promote investment efficiency in accordance with the Prime Minister's direction, we request the Long An Provincial People's Committee to resolutely direct the investor and related units to speed up the construction progress, complete the 250m section of the branch connecting to Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway (branch A) before December 31.

"The items of branch H, the overpass and the roads at both ends of the overpass before March 30, 2025", the Ministry of Transport proposed to the People's Committee of Long An province.

So when will the 250m section be completed? A representative of the Long An Province Department of Transport said that the 250m section is expected to be completed by January 5.

According to this person, the bidding package of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project through the locality was implemented later than the bidding packages of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway project.

In the past time, contractors have tried very hard, racing to complete the package soon, especially the 250m section connecting to Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway.

Some sections of the Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway have been completed and the investor is proposing to the authorities to approve the plan to put it into operation first – Photo: CHAU TUAN

The entire route is expected to be completed in September 2026.

Over the past two years, after legal procedural obstacles were removed, most of the Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway packages have accelerated construction and are nearing completion, except for the J3 Phuoc Khanh bridge package across the Long Tau river connecting Can Gio district, Ho Chi Minh City and Nhon Trach district, Dong Nai province.

The long-standing unresolved problems with this bidding package are preventing the entire project from reaching its finish line on September 30, 2025 as planned.

The J3 Phuoc Khanh Bridge package was previously implemented by the joint venture Sumitomo Mitsui (Japan) - Cienco 4 (Vietnam).

By 2022, the investor and contractor J3 had terminated the contract, when the package volume reached 80.7%.

Because the package uses ODA capital from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), it must comply with the regulations on main contractors from Japan. To find a contractor to continue, in December 2023, the investor issued an international open bidding document for package J3-1.

However, after 90 days of invitation to bid, no Japanese contractors were interested and participated in the bidding.

In the proposal to adjust the investment policy of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway project, the Ministry of Transport said that after no Japanese contractors participated in the bidding, VEC asked for the sponsor's opinion on relaxing the binding conditions on the valid nationality of contractors so that Vietnamese contractors could participate as main construction contractors and independent contractors.

The negotiation process with the Japanese side on the bidding documents to organize international bidding and amend the conditions on the valid nationality of the contractor took place over a long period of time, but did not achieve any results, greatly affecting the progress of the implementation of the J3-1 package, while the implementation time was running out.

Therefore, VEC has proposed using self-mobilized capital instead of ODA capital to carry out the remaining work of Phuoc Khanh bridge.

To be able to organize bidding and implement the J3-1 package, the investor needs to carry out the adjustment procedure from Japanese ODA loan capital to using VEC capital.

According to the proposal of the Ministry of Transport, after completing the procedures for approving the adjustment of the investment policy and approving the adjustment of the project, VEC will start construction of package J3-1 in March 2025 and complete it in September 2026.

How long to wait for Phuoc Khanh bridge?

According to Tuoi Tre's investigation, package J3-1 (the remaining work of package J3 Phuoc Khanh bridge) was issued bidding documents by VEC on July 30 in the form of open domestic bidding via the internet.

The estimated price of the package is 683,994 billion VND, the contract implementation period is 13 months. By August 6, 2024, the investor opened the bid and domestic contractors submitted their participation documents.

However, the bid has not been awarded yet because it is waiting for adjustment of the investment policy.

In the appraisal report on adjusting the project investment policy, the Ministry of Planning and Investment assessed that the proposal to adjust the project implementation period to September 30, 2026 has a basis to ensure the project completion time.

The Ministry also noted that there is not much time left to implement the project, so it requested the Ministry of Transport to direct VEC to inspect, review, and calculate more clearly the remaining workload, specifically assess arising situations, material supply capacity, material price fluctuations, etc.

At the same time, the Ministry of Transport is responsible for developing a specific implementation plan, determining the completion time to ensure feasibility and effectiveness; avoiding having to submit to competent authorities to adjust the investment policy, extend the project implementation time many times, affecting investment efficiency.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cao-toc-ben-luc-long-thanh-lai-tre-hen-20241230233645371.htm