Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway: Overcoming difficulties, racing for progress

Component project 1 (DATP1), Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway (through Khanh Hoa province) is over 30km long. Overcoming difficulties in the site, contractors are speeding up construction day and night.

Through forests and mountains, construction is still ahead of schedule

After many hours of driving along the service road of the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway project, we arrived at the final test site of component project 1 (in Ninh Tay commune, Ninh Hoa town, bordering Dak Lak province).

Joint venture of North Central South Infrastructure Construction Joint Stock Company - 168 Vietnam Construction Group Joint Stock Company 3 constructed Hon Lai bridge.

Follow the forest road to Km27+200, which is the construction site of Hon Lai bridge by the joint venture of Bac Trung Nam Infrastructure Construction Joint Stock Company - 168 Vietnam Construction Group Joint Stock Company 3. The bridge is 15 spans long, many piers have been completed, engineers and workers are still working hard to construct the remaining piers. From above, the sound of construction commanders and machinery resounds as if covering the entire old forest.

Engineer Pham Hong Van, Executive Director of the Joint Venture of Contractors Phuong Nam - Bac Trung Nam - 168 Vietnam (construction package No. 2) shared that because the expressway has to pass through many forest areas, it takes many months to complete procedures to change the purpose of forest use. Therefore, at first, most contractors encountered problems with the table top.

To overcome the difficulties, the contractor negotiated with the people to borrow the road to transport materials, equipment and machinery. The construction unit also borrowed safe locations from the people to cast bridge beams and concrete components.

Contractor 168 casts girders ready to construct bridges on the route.

"It was very difficult for us to bring electricity to the locations and transport materials and equipment along the forest roads. However, the difficulties were gradually overcome, and by August 2024, when the procedures related to converting the forest purpose were completed and the site was handed over. At that time, the contractor would add more electricity lines, build shelters on the route, and start constructing bridge and culvert items on the field with prefabricated materials and equipment that had been prepared in advance," engineer Van shared.

According to engineer Pham Hong Van, construction package No. 2 (section Km22+00 - Km32+00) is being carried out by a joint venture. Contractors are constructing 6/6 bridges along with roadbeds and drainage culverts on a route length of 9.1/9.5 km. The construction volume to date has reached more than 27.5% of the contract value.

Through the difficult and dangerous terrain, dozens of trucks and containers follow the service road between the trees and forests, carrying steel and concrete mixing materials to the construction site. In construction package No. 3, Truong Son Construction Corporation is constructing 2 bridges on the route, including Km30 bridge and Cua Dong bridge.

Major Nguyen Quy Tuan, Deputy Commander of Construction Package No. 3, said that due to its location mainly in mountainous areas, transporting supplies, materials, and opening construction roads is difficult, but the contractor has gradually overcome this problem.

"Although conditions are still difficult due to not being able to get electricity and having to bring stream water for daily activities, the company has mobilized more than 60 workers and dozens of pieces of machinery and equipment to the construction site. The unit is having workers work in 3 shifts, taking advantage of the sunny weather to work day and night, striving to complete these 2 important bridges by March 2026, 3 months ahead of schedule compared to the contract," Major Tuan's voice was full of determination.

There are still 14 bottlenecks.

To the east of the highway, the terrain is quite flat, many sections have been paved with crushed stone, some locations have been paved with the first layer of asphalt (C25).

Son Hai Group Contractor (the contractor for the first 22km of the route) said that the unit is currently arranging 400 workers, 200 machines and equipment working in 3 shifts to speed up the project's progress. Up to now, nearly 20/22km of roadbed and drainage have been constructed, 12/12 bridges have been constructed, 3.5/22km of cement-reinforced crushed stone pavement has been constructed, and 2.5/22km of C25 asphalt concrete pavement has been constructed. From June 2023 to now, construction has reached nearly 51% of the contract.

Contractors face difficulties as houses are still located on the construction site.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tiem, Deputy Director of Project Construction Management (Son Hai Group) said: "Some sections of this route are being constructed in sections due to the houses of some households. Therefore, the contractor has not been able to carry out continuous construction for many months.

To maintain progress, the contractor rented land from other households to build a public road around the garden of the residents for construction. Currently, there are some bottlenecks in terms of land. However, the unit is still focusing on constructing the areas where the land has been handed over to soon bring the project to the finish line as required by the Prime Minister."

Information from the Project Management Board (PMU) of Investment in Construction of Agricultural and Transport Works of Khanh Hoa Province (investor of DATP1) said that currently, some households located in the troubled locations have received compensation and demolished part of their houses, and are waiting to receive housing rental support money to hand over 100% of the premises.

The Project Management Board has negotiated with each household to construct the underground infrastructure first. The Board also changed the plan from earth filling to stone filling to proactively source materials, not affecting the progress; continue to urge contractors to speed up the progress, striving to complete the first 20km of the route by the end of 2025 and complete the entire project by the end of 2026.

After completing the conversion of forest use purposes, the contractor took advantage of the available space to speed up construction.

Mr. Pham Van Hoa, Director of DATP1 Management, said that there are currently 14 bottlenecks. Of these, 71 cases have received money and are currently dismantling their houses to hand over the site before March 31, and 10 cases have not agreed to receive compensation funds to hand over the site.

"To complete 20km by the end of 2025 on schedule set by the Prime Minister, the Management Board of Investment and Construction of Agricultural and Transport Works of Khanh Hoa province recommends that the Provincial People's Committee direct the People's Committee of Ninh Hoa town to speed up site clearance work, coordinate with the People's Committees of communes and wards to continue to mobilize households that have not received compensation funds to hand over the site to the contractor before March 2025. At the same time, speed up the payment of compensation funds for the remaining 10 cases," said Mr. Hoa.

According to Mr. Nghiem Xuan Thanh, Secretary of Khanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee, the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway Project is currently facing problems with site clearance. The province has directed Ninh Hoa town to find a solution to hand over the site by the end of March 2025.

It is known that recently, after checking the project progress, Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long assessed that the project still has some difficulties, the construction progress has not met expectations. The Deputy Prime Minister requested that localities, investors and contractors must be more determined and make more efforts to meet the completion schedule of projects in the list of 3,000km of expressways by 2025.

Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway is nearly 118km long with a total investment of nearly 22,000 billion VND, divided into 3 DATPs. Of which, DATP1 is 31.5km long with a total investment of 5,333 billion VND, located in Khanh Hoa province.

This project is invested by the Khanh Hoa Provincial Management Board of Agricultural and Transport Construction Investment Projects, connecting with DATP 2 (invested by Project Management Board 6) and DATP3 (managed by the Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee).

The completion of the project will contribute to traffic connectivity, creating momentum for socio-economic development in the South Central Coast and Central Highlands regions.

>>> Image of contractors taking advantage of the land to speed up construction of the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway:

Although the construction was in a state of congestion, the contractor (the section through Ninh Xuan commune, Ninh Hoa town, Khanh Hoa) maintained progress and promptly spread crushed stone and asphalt.

Many houses are located on the route, and the contractor Son Hai, constructing the Song Lop bridge (through Ninh Dong commune, Ninh Hoa town), is still trying to meet the construction volume.

Borrowing people's forest paths to build public roads, contractors for construction packages 1 and 2 quickly mobilized machinery, gathered people and materials to work day and night.

The construction site is not continuous, however, the contractor of construction package 1, Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway still ensures the construction progress of the roadbed.

Many kilometers on the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway project have been paved with the first layer of asphalt concrete (C25) by the contractor.

The intersection between Van Phong - Nha Trang Expressway and Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot Expressway is being urgently constructed to put the Van Phong - Nha Trang Expressway into operation on April 30 this year.

Son Hai contractor constructs the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway section through Ninh Thuong commune, Ninh Hoa town.

To overcome the difficulties of mountainous terrain, many bridge and culvert projects on the route through Ninh Tay commune, Ninh Hoa town are being constructed simultaneously.

Workers of Son Hai Group Company Limited construct steel reinforcement for bridge piers on the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway project.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/cao-toc-khanh-hoa-buon-ma-thuot-vuot-kho-chay-dua-tien-do-192250329182021475.htm