Contractors racing to meet progress
On the morning of March 20, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Duy Lam led a delegation of the Ministry of Transport to inspect the site of two North-South expressway projects passing through Ha Tinh province.
At the intersection of National Highway 8A, through Duc Tho district (Ha Tinh), Mr. Pham Chien Thang - Executive Director of the Bai Vot - Ham Nghi Expressway Project (under the Thang Long Project Management Board) reported: The Bai Vot - Ham Nghi project has a total length of 35.28km, with a total investment of 7,643 billion VND.
The project will be implemented from January 1, 2023, by a joint venture between Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Corporation (Vinaconex) and the Ministry of National Defense's 319 Corporation.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Lam and the delegation listened to the leader of Thang Long Project Management Board report on the progress of Ham Nghi - Vung Ang project.
Up to this point, the units have dug 1.0/1.6 million m3 of the main roadbed, equivalent to 65%; built 1.1/4.6 million m3 of K95 foundation (24%); completed 100% of the sections that had to treat weak soil with wicks, 72% of the sections treated with sand wells and constructed 75% of the volume of cement soil pillars.
The units have also deployed construction of 24/25 bridge locations and 28/48 culverts and underpasses for people. For the bridge section, the contractors have basically completed the bored piles and are implementing two parallel tasks: casting beams, components and lowering the bridge.
"The total output value of the two contractors has so far reached 1,317 billion/4,873 billion (27%). The Board has disbursed 100% of the planned capital assigned for 2023 and 46% (607 billion VND) of the planned capital assigned for 2024" - Mr. Thang said.
Regarding the Ham Nghi - Vung Ang Expressway Project, Mr. Nguyen Khac Trung - Project Executive Director (Thang Long Project Management Board), said that the project has a total length of more than 54.2 km passing through Thach Ha, Cam Xuyen and Ky Anh districts, Ha Tinh province. The total investment is more than 9,700 billion VND.
The intersection of National Highway 8A through Duc Tho district is expected to open to traffic in June 2024.
Up to now, the project progress has reached 21.81% (output 1,377.04 billion/ 6,314.48 billion VND). Of which, package XL11 reached 815.18/3,534.08 billion VND (reaching 23.07%). Package 12 reached 562.24/2,780.40 billion VND (reaching 20.22%).
Currently, localities have basically handed over clean land to contractors for construction. However, the route is still stuck with the technical infrastructure of the power line, making the construction not smooth.
"The main stuck locations are in Cam Xuyen district. This locality has committed to handing over to the contractor next April," Mr. Trung informed.
According to the reporter of Giao thong Newspaper, the contractors have basically completed the service road system along the route and are focusing on the excavation and embankment of the roadbed. In particular, there has been more than 1.5km of crushed stone pavement reinforced with CTB cement.
Clearing public roads and foundations is one of the prerequisites for contractors to speed up progress and gradually achieve the set goals.
Xuan Truong Construction Enterprise has laid nearly 2km of CTB cement reinforced crushed stone mix.
For example, contractor VINACONEX is constructing the QL8A intersection adjacent to the Dien Chau - Bai Vot expressway project, expected to open to traffic in June 2024. In the past, the contractor has mobilized maximum human resources and equipment to strive to achieve the progress milestone set by the Ministry of Transport.
"Up to now, the unit can confidently complete the intersection items before June 30, 2024; basically complete the main route by April 2025 and ensure traffic opening in June 2025" - Mr. Pham Thai Duong, Director of Project Management Board 1 of VINACONEX said.
Or as Mr. Tran Dinh Ngan - Commander of the contractor of Corporation 319 shared: Learning from the experience of constructing the expressway project phase 1, in this project, from now on, the unit will proactively install mixing stations, proactively exploit and gather materials in advance, and be financially autonomous... in order to avoid being passive when entering the final stage.
If the weather is favorable, we are confident that we will shorten the progress by 6 months; complete the project before June 30, 2025 as committed to the Ministry of Transport and the Government.
Once committed, must be done
During the inspection along the route, Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Lam and the working delegation highly appreciated the efforts of the project investor and contractors.
Although there were many difficulties at the beginning, the project has now begun to accelerate and set a target of shortening the progress by 3-6 months compared to the contract. However, the Deputy Minister also reminded contractors not to be subjective.
The construction output of Xuan Truong Enterprise has not been as expected due to many difficult construction sites and locations.
The Deputy Minister cited that in the Ham Nghi - Vung Ang project, the total output value reached 21.8%. Of which, contractors such as JSC 471 and Construction JSC 368 made the value reach 33% - 38%, however, there were also contractors such as Xuan Truong that only reached 18.7%, which was very low and not as expected.
Deputy Minister Lam said: This project has many advantages when Ha Tinh province has created good conditions in terms of mine resources, land... but after more than 1 year of implementation, the achieved volume is still low.
"When I walked along the route, I saw many bridges and culverts that were not completed or some bridges had new piers... Meanwhile, the bridge and culvert project is one of the projects that can be done early and is almost unaffected by weather factors.
The contractors' commitment to shorten the progress is very welcome, but through field inspection, I found that there are still many sections of the construction site that are vacant, and many items are not being completed in accordance with the contractor's capacity.
The total remaining time of the project is more than 1 year, but if excluding the rainy season, the actual construction time is only about 9 months. Not to mention the current unpredictable weather, if the contractors are not proactive from now on, it will be very difficult later on" - the Deputy Minister worried.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Duy Lam requested units to add more locomotives and human resources to compensate for the progress due to the weather.
Explaining the low output of the project, Mr. Pham Van Hai - Head of Technical Department of Xuan Truong Private Enterprise, said: In the early stages of the project, due to difficulties in material sources, the unit mainly used land on the route to build public roads, so the output was not as expected.
It was not until September 2023 that the company was granted a mine, and the recent rainy weather has affected the construction progress of the unit. In the coming time, the unit will arrange more machinery and workers to make up for the progress."
Disagreeing with the contractor's reasons, Deputy Minister Lam stated: I directly directed and inspected two projects in the Mekong Delta, in which the construction was still difficult due to the remote roads, scarce materials, but the current output was also equivalent, even the bridge part they had completed the lower part. Therefore, in the coming time, the Board and the contractor must seriously rectify.
Accepting the Deputy Minister's direction, the leaders of Thang Long Project Management Board and contractors all committed to immediately rectify, especially the direction and organization of construction at the construction site.
During the inspection, the Project Management Board and the contractor requested to adjust the plan for using materials salvaged from the process of lowering the rock hill at Km560.
"Initially, the excavated rock from this location was designed to be used as grade 1 crushed stone and concrete. However, through the process of lowering the height from 5 - 8m, the contractor and the board found that the quality of the rock was too low and could not be utilized.
Therefore, the contractor proposed to purchase concrete and aggregate stones to meet the construction schedule. For the excess stones, the contractor proposed to transfer them to the foundation and crush them into coarse particles to serve the process of building the bridge approach road. This method not only helps reduce transportation costs, limit waste but also ensures sufficient supply of materials for the project.
Regarding this issue, Deputy Minister Lam assigned the investor to consider and, if it is correct and reasonable, create favorable conditions to support the contractor in implementing it. In addition, the Deputy Minister noted that the investor and contractor will coordinate well with the locality in the coming time to remove the remaining land positions on the route.
"Both contractors of the two expressway component projects through Ha Tinh have promised to complete the project on schedule, shortening the time by 6 months, ensuring the project will be opened to traffic in June 2025. To achieve this goal, contractors must make more efforts, mobilize more machinery and workers, and organize construction scientifically to ensure progress. The spirit is that if you promise, you must do it, and do it at all costs" - Deputy Minister Lam emphasized.
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