This afternoon (September 27), the Department of Construction of Dong Nai province said that it had sent a document to relevant authorities requesting to temporarily stop construction of the riverside road project, the section passing through the 100-year-old villa of Mr. Vo Ha Thanh.

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In front of the 100-year-old villa being constructed by the unit. Photo: Hoang Anh

Specifically, the Department requested the Project Management Board and Bien Hoa City People's Committee to direct relevant units to temporarily suspend construction on the section passing through the ancient villa area, while maintaining the current status and fencing in this area.

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The Department of Construction is proposing four options for preserving an ancient villa in Dong Nai. Photo: Hoang Anh

The Department of Construction also proposed four options to retain this project.

According to the first plan, the ancient villa will be moved back inside. The State will fund the hiring of professional units to do it. However, with this plan, the land behind the ancient villa will only be 6m deep.

Therefore, it is necessary to carry out compensation and site clearance for households behind, which will take a long time, along with planning adjustments and additional land acquisition.

Option 2 is to re-align the riverside road to preserve the ancient villa. According to the Department of Construction, the riverside road has currently encroached on the villa by about 12.7m and the distance from the river embankment to the sidewalk is 14.7m. However, with the remaining distance from the edge of the embankment to the edge of the villa's porch, it is entirely possible to adjust the route to avoid affecting this historical structure while still ensuring the road width of 24m as originally planned.

With the 650m unfinished road section, the alignment will be done smoothly, avoiding sharp turns or too narrow roads. Specifically, this plan will reduce the width of the sidewalks on both sides from 5m to 4m. The area obtained will create a safe distance between the villa and the road, and the remaining land will be planned into a park and parking lot.

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The Department of Construction proposed the most optimal solution is to straighten the road. Photo: Hoang Anh

Option 3 proposes creating a roundabout square surrounding the ancient villa, turning it into a ceramic museum (on the condition that the State requisitions the entire ancient villa and renovates it into a museum).

To implement this plan, the riverside route will be divided into two branches, creating an open campus for the museum. One branch will face the Dong Nai riverbank, the other will hug the ancient villa. After that, these two branches will merge, continuing along the approved route.

With this design, each branch road will have a road clearance of about 17m and the branch road will be about 220m long. A 16m wide strip of land along the river bank will be reserved for building a green park, adding more green space to the square area.

However, implementing this option will require the acquisition of an additional 3,000 square meters of land and require adjustments to the route design.

Option 4, build a riverside road at a different height than the surrounding area, creating a small island with a park and ceramic museum surrounding the ancient villas. This road will be about 600-700m long, 24m wide, and high enough for boats to pass.

However, this option will require additional land acquisition and cost about VND200 billion to build overpasses and other works.

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Many people want to keep the 100-year-old villa. Photo: Hoang Anh

Among the proposed options, the Department proposed that the Provincial People's Committee consider and select option 2. This option is considered the most optimal, both meeting the goal of preserving cultural heritage by keeping the location of the ancient villa intact, and not significantly affecting the overall progress of the Dong Nai riverside road project.