Proposing the Vietnam Road Administration to consider temporarily suspending toll collection on National Highway 1 BOT section through Ha Tinh

In response to the fact that the volume of existing repairs and road surface repairs on the BOT section of National Highway 1 through Ha Tinh has not met the requirements, Road Management Area II has requested the Vietnam Road Administration to consider and decide to temporarily suspend toll collection based on regulations.

Cienco 4 mobilized machinery to scrape and repair Km 486 of National Highway 1 through Dau Lieu Ward, Hong Linh Town on January 19.

Road Management Area II has just sent a report to the Vietnam Road Administration Department on the repair of damaged road surfaces and traffic safety systems of the National Highway 1 project, Vinh City bypass and National Highway 1 from the South of Ben Thuy Bridge to the North of Ha Tinh City bypass, managed and operated by Cienco 4 Group Joint Stock Company (Cienco 4) under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model.

The report was signed and issued by Deputy Director of Road Management Area II Nguyen Duc Dung on January 23. The report clearly stated: Since the beginning of 2023, the Vietnam Road Administration has issued 1 notice and 5 official dispatches; Road Management Area II, Road Management Office II.3 has inspected the site 4 times and sent 25 official dispatches to the Investor - Cienco 4 and the project enterprise - Vinh City Bypass BOT Branch with a timeline requesting to fix the existing problems on the route to ensure smooth road surface, traffic safety, and maintain the life of the project.

However, the repairs are still fragmented, small-scale, not timely, and do not meet the actual level of damage. The repair work is not thorough, not ensuring the time and quality requirements as committed.

Therefore, Road Management Area II reported and proposed that the Vietnam Road Administration consider and decide to temporarily suspend toll collection according to the official dispatch dated March 7, 2023 and official dispatch dated October 4, 2023.

Many locations and sections on National Highway 1 from the South of Ben Thuy Bridge to the North of Ha Tinh City bypass have not been repaired.

Then, on January 4, 2024, the working delegation of the Traffic Safety Committee of Ha Tinh province led by Mr. Tran Bao Ha - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Traffic Safety Committee of the province, together with relevant agencies and units inspected the scene of National Highway 1, from the South of Ben Thuy bridge to the North of Ha Tinh city bypass and issued conclusion notice No. 03 dated January 4, 2024.

Road Management Area II has assigned Road Management Office II.3 to preside over and coordinate with Ha Tinh departments, branches, Cienco4, Vinh City Bypass BOT Branch to review the scene, select items and volumes that need priority repair and restoration before the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024 with the volume of severely damaged road surface that needs to be repaired before January 25, 2024 being 37,347.8 ^m2 .

The work of overcoming existing problems and repairing the road surface on the 35km BOT section of National Highway 1 through Ha Tinh has not yet met requirements.

Recently, the Vinh City Bypass BOT Branch has taken advantage of the weather to mobilize machinery, equipment, and human resources to repair damaged road surfaces to ensure traffic.

However, by January 22, 2024, the volume of existing repairs and road surface repairs had not met the requirements in the conclusion notice No. 03 dated January 4, 2024 of the Traffic Safety Committee of Ha Tinh province and the direction of the Vietnam Road Administration.

Specifically, the volume of road surface repair reached 6,057.15 ^m2 , of which 2,667.4/37,347.8 ^{m2 of} road surface area was severely damaged (reaching 7.2% according to the field inspection report) and 3,389.75 ^m2 of damaged road surface area belonged to the second renovation project.

Traffic safety system, of which touch-up painting only reached 197 ^m2 , while other items have not been implemented.

Road Management Area II proposed that the Vietnam Road Administration consider and decide to temporarily stop collecting tolls on National Highway 1, Vinh City bypass route, and National Highway 1, from South of Ben Thuy Bridge to North of Ha Tinh City bypass route.

For the above reasons, Road Management Area II requests the Vietnam Road Administration to base on the provisions of Circular No. 45/2021/TT-BGTVT dated December 31, 2021 of the Minister of Transport "Regulations on road toll station operations" to consider and decide to temporarily suspend toll collection for National Highway 1, Vinh City bypass route and National Highway 1, section from South of Ben Thuy bridge to North of Ha Tinh City bypass route.

The project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1 from the South of Ben Thuy Bridge to the North of Ha Tinh City bypass, 35 km long, with a cost of more than VND 2,400 billion, is invested by Cienco 4 under the BOT (build - operate - transfer) form.

The route is designed to the standard of a level 3 plain road, with 4 lanes for motor vehicles and 2 lanes for non-motor vehicles, and a road surface width of 20.5m. In early 2014, the project was completed and put into use. The Vinh City Bypass BOT Branch is the unit that manages and operates the route.

Ben Thuy toll station and Ben Thuy 2 toll station are two toll stations to recover capital for the Vinh City bypass (Nghe An) and the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1 from the South of Ben Thuy bridge to the North of Ha Tinh City bypass.

Over time, the road has been damaged and peeled off in many places.

However, due to not being thoroughly repaired, the 35km long National Highway 1 through Ha Tinh has seriously degraded, posing a high risk of traffic accidents.

Faced with this reality, the road management agency, the provincial People's Committee and the Traffic Safety Committee of Ha Tinh province have repeatedly requested Cienco 4, the BOT Branch of Vinh City bypass, to focus on handling shortcomings, degradation and damage to the road surface, ensuring safety for people and vehicles.

However, investors and project enterprises have repeatedly missed deadlines; the repairs and remediation have not been thorough, and have not met the requirements on time and quality as committed.

Navy

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/dau-tu/de-nghi-cuc-duong-bo-viet-nam-xem-xet-tam-dung-thu-phi-ql1-doan-bot-qua-ha-tinh/260764.htm