Transport projects in the Southeast: Unblocking bottlenecks, enhancing regional connectivity

A 12km section of Ho Chi Minh City's Ring Road 4 passing through Ben Cat city. (Photo: Hong Dat/VNA)

Right in the first days of 2025, the two Ring Roads 3 and 4 of Ho Chi Minh City have had new developments, along with other expressway projects that have been launched, bringing expectations of a breakthrough in traffic infrastructure in the Southeast region.

From 4 Ho Chi Minh City Belt Lines

The Southeast, with its pioneering role in transport infrastructure, will create a driving force for socio-economic growth for the entire region. This is an issue of special concern to the Government.

Typically, on the 4th day of Tet (February 1), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued the order to start construction of the Ho Chi Minh City-Thu Dau Mot-Chon Thanh expressway project through Binh Duong province.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh inspects the construction of Tan Van intersection of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project through Binh Duong province on February 1 (Photo: Duong Giang/VNA)

A week earlier, on January 23, the Ben Luc-Long Thanh expressway opened traffic to the first and last sections of the route with a total length of 9.5km.

According to Mr. Truong Viet Dong, Chairman of the Board of Members of Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), with the determination to "overcome the sun and win the rain," on February 7, VEC officially held a traffic opening ceremony.

At the end of 2024, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai signed a submission to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the new progress report of the investment project to build Ring Road 4 - Ho Chi Minh City.

This is a strategic traffic axis project connecting Ho Chi Minh City, the Southeast, Central Highlands and Southwest regions, thereby promoting the circulation of goods from industrial parks, urban areas to seaports, Long Thanh International Airport and vice versa, connecting urban areas and industrial parks in the region, creating regional linkages, and developing the socio-economy of the key economic region in the South.

The Ring Road 4-Ho Chi Minh City project was planned since 2011, passing through 5 provinces and cities with a total length of 159.31km; of which the project passes through Ba Ria-Vung Tau 18.23km, Dong Nai 46.08km, Ho Chi Minh City about 16.7km long, Long An 78.3km long (including the section through Long An 74.5km long, the section through Ho Chi Minh City 3.8km long).

According to Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai, Ring Road 4 will connect with all current and future expressways, helping to promote the development of not only Ho Chi Minh City but also the southern provinces. When completed, this route will become an important part of the effective inter-sectoral and inter-local linkage chain.

However, Ring Road 4 is the last expressway to be launched among the four Ring Roads of Ho Chi Minh City. Ring Roads 1 and 2 are located entirely within Ho Chi Minh City (Ring Road 1 has a section passing through Binh Duong province at Song Than overpass) and were built with the aim of facilitating traffic between the inner city and the suburbs. Ring Road 3 - Ho Chi Minh City project passes through four localities: Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An, with a length of more than 76km, with a total project investment of more than 75,300 billion VND, including site clearance and construction.

The project was started by localities in June 2023, with the expectation of basic completion in 2025 and the entire project in 2026.

To the Southeast expressway network

If Ring Road 2 and Ring Road 3 mainly connect within the Southeast region, Ring Road 4 expands the connection between Ho Chi Minh City and other regions such as the South Central Coast, Southwest, and Central Highlands, the expressways that are being launched in parallel have completed the picture of complete traffic connections.

This transport network will form an industrial, urban, service and logistics belt, creating the premise for the development of areas, urban areas and industrial and service centers along the route. That is the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway, more than 53km long, passing through Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces with a total investment of more than 17,800 billion VND.

Construction of Ho Chi Minh City's elevated Ring Road 3 (overpass) section through Thu Duc City. (Photo: Hong Dat/VNA)

According to the plan, the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway will be basically completed in 2025 and put into operation in 2026. The section passing through Ba Ria-Vung Tau province currently has more than 90% of the road surface area paved with crushed stone, striving to open the entire route to technical traffic on April 30, 2025, 8 months earlier than the deadline assigned by the Government and about 4 months ahead of the contractor's initial commitment.

According to the Southern Expressway Project Management Board, the Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway Project is nearly 58km long, passing through 3 localities: Long An, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, with a total investment of 31,300 billion VND.

To date, the total output of the project has reached over 90%. Right after the Lunar New Year, the first two final sections were opened to traffic. It is expected that the entire route will be opened to traffic in 2025, helping to connect the Southeast - Southwest regions as well as connecting seamlessly with major expressways such as Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong, Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay and Bien Hoa - Vung Tau, contributing to economic development for the whole region.

After the Lunar New Year, the Ho Chi Minh City-Thu Dau Mot-Chon Thanh expressway connecting from Ring Road 3-Ho Chi Minh City to Chon Thanh town (Binh Phuoc province) has pressed the groundbreaking button. This is the first expressway connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and will continue to connect with the Chon Thanh-Gia Nghia expressway (Dak Nong) to connect to the Central Highlands, creating development momentum for localities, opening up new development space.

The recent approval of the Moc Bai-Ho Chi Minh City expressway project by the Government is good news for Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh and the Southeast provinces. This project is a traffic connection axis in the Trans-Asia corridor planning, connecting the Bavet-Phnom Penh expressway (in Cambodia and Laos).

The project is expected to start construction this year and strive to be put into operation in 2027 to synchronize with the Bavet-Phnom Penh Expressway. This is a 4-lane expressway with a total investment of more than 19,600 billion VND, implemented under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) form. Along the expressway, there will be 5 major intersections built to connect the intersecting roads, including Ring Road 3, Provincial Road 15, Provincial Road 8, DT.787B, National Highway 22B and National Highway 22.

National Highway 22 will reduce traffic congestion when the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai Expressway comes into operation. (Photo: Giang Phuong/VNA)

The Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai Expressway is divided into four component projects; of which component project 1 is to build the expressway under the BOT method with a total capital of more than 10,400 billion VND, with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee as the competent authority. Component project 2 builds a residential access road and an overpass, with an investment capital of 2,420 billion VND. The remaining two component projects are to clear the land through Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh.

When completed, this project will increase the capacity of the international transit route connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Cambodia, reducing the load on National Highway 22. This is also the shortest route connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Cambodia through Moc Bai Border Gate.

According to Chairman of Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee Vo Tan Duc, the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway expansion project is extremely urgent to solve traffic problems for Long Thanh Airport and the Southeast region.

The Chairman of the People's Committee of Dong Nai province proposed that Ho Chi Minh City closely coordinate with Dong Nai province and the Ministry of Transport to soon start this project, striving to complete it by September 2026 to synchronize with the exploitation progress of Long Thanh Airport.

Thus, in 2025, the localities of the Southeast region and the central ministries and branches are determined to accelerate the progress of transport infrastructure projects to clear bottlenecks, strengthen regional connectivity, and open up development space to quickly enter a new era, an era of growth not only for the southern provinces but also for the whole country.

Source: https://baobinhphuoc.com.vn/news/4/169208/traffic-project-in-the-southeast-of-the-sea-is-to-start-up-to-connect-the-region-with-a-connection-point