In early September, the contractor mobilized 4 more ships to increase sand exploitation capacity.

Mining even during holidays

On the morning of September 1, Mr. Do Minh Chau, Deputy Director of VNCN E&C Investment - Construction and Engineering Joint Stock Company (sea sand exploitation contractor) said that he had just mobilized four more dredgers, bringing the total number of ships operating here to 14/15 registered ships.

Crew members on dredgers do not take holidays and exploit sand as usual.

Among these ships, the ship with the largest capacity is about 2,000m3 of sand. On average, each trip to the mine (more than 20km from the mainland) to suck sand, then return to the transfer point in Long Phu town, Long Phu district, Soc Trang province (more than 40km from the mine), each ship spends about 800 liters of oil and 15 hours.

"The exploitation capacity has increased by 5,500m3/day, increasing the total to nearly 18,000m3 of sea sand/day. We are not taking a break this holiday," said Mr. Chau.

According to him, construction started on June 29, and by the end of August, the contractor had brought more than 90,000m3 of sea sand to the North-South expressway project in Kien Giang and Ca Mau.

Sand washing to reduce salinity at the transshipment point.

"For almost the entire month of July, we spent all our time completing registration and inspection procedures for the suction vessels, so we could only operate them at the end of the month.

"These past few days, the sea has been rough and the wind has been strong, which has also affected mining operations," said Mr. Chau.

Meeting the demand for sand for construction of the North-South expressway in the East

On June 21, 2024, the People's Committee of Soc Trang province issued a Confirmation of Area B1.1 and B1.2 to VNCN E&C Construction and Engineering Investment Joint Stock Company to organize exploitation to serve the construction of the Eastern North-South Expressway project.

On June 29, the contractor began to exploit sea sand. The method of exploiting sea sand in area B1 of Soc Trang province is to use suction hoses of turtle boats running along the sand surface on the seabed. This exploitation is spread out to avoid creating deep holes, to avoid erosion occurring both in the short term and in the long term.

The suction vessel (middle) is pumping sand into two spillway vessels to transport to the construction site.

The sand mining area is limited by four corner points with specific coordinates by the competent authority. The permitted depth is 7.5m, and the permitted height is 5m from sea level.

The term of sand exploitation is calculated from the time of the decision to hand over the sea area until December 21, 2024.

According to the assessment results, the B1 sea sand mine area has an area of ​​32km2 with a total sand output of about 145 million m3, meeting the ability to be used as filling material.

According to Mr. Chau, only half of the licensed sand mine has been exploited. The remaining mine will be exploited when Soc Trang province completes the review and allocation according to the needs of the registered localities.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the Mekong Delta region is implementing the construction of the North-South expressway project in the east, the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang project, the An Huu - Cao Lanh project and a number of other key projects with a total demand for sand filling materials of about 50 million m3.

After receiving sand at the transshipment point, the ships will travel more than 180km to bring sand to the construction site in Kien Giang...

The Ministry of Transport will expand the scope of the pilot project of filling the foundation with sea sand on the main route, from km81+000 to the end of the main route (km126+223), in Hong Dan district, Bac Lieu province; Vinh Thuan district, Kien Giang province and Thoi Binh district, Ca Mau province.

In addition, sea sand is also used on the Ca Mau connection section from Km 6+522 - Km16+510, in the areas of Thoi Binh, Tran Van Thoi and Cai Nuoc districts, Ca Mau province.

The North-South Eastern Expressway - also known as the Can Tho - Ca Mau Expressway, invested by the My Thuan Project Management Board, is divided into two component projects.

The Can Tho - Hau Giang section of the project is over 37km long. The total investment is over 10,370 billion VND.

The Hau Giang - Ca Mau section of the project is over 73km long, passing through Hau Giang, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces. The total investment is over 17,152 billion VND.

Implementation time from 2021, basically completed in 2025 and put into operation from 2026.

The total sand demand for the project is about 18.1 million m3, of which 9 million m3 is needed in 2024.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/dau-thang-9-nha-thau-huy-dong-them-4-tau-tang-cong-suat-khai-thac-cat-bien-192240901103701835.htm