What are the two proposed options for building a tunnel to replace Cat Lai ferry?

The consulting unit proposed two options including building Cat Lai tunnel at a cost of only about 9-10,000 billion VND, requiring little site clearance, and limiting impact on people.

Regarding the implementation of the bridge to replace the Cat Lai ferry connecting Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City, recently at a working session with the leaders of Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee, representatives of Fecon Joint Stock Company and its partner, Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co.STEC, proposed a plan to build a tunnel across the river to replace the bridge.

Existing Cat Lai ferry location.

According to the representative of Fecon Joint Stock Company, building a tunnel across the river instead of a bridge will limit difficulties and obstacles in site clearance. Minimize social impacts on residential areas living in the project planning area. At the same time, the construction of the tunnel will avoid impacts on the waterway traffic system and the operation of the existing Cat Lai Port.

The consulting unit has proposed two options for building a tunnel under the river and given a timeline and estimated cost for the cheapest and fastest option.

The cheapest option has a total investment of only 9-10,000 billion VND, construction will take no more than 2 years. There are two options for building a tunnel under the Dong Nai River with open tunnels on the Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai sides and a closed tunnel under the river. Both options propose 2 parallel tunnels.

With option 1, there will be 8 lanes with 4 lanes per tunnel, designed speed of 80km/h. With this option, the route length is more than 2.3km. The construction of closed tunnels, open tunnels and 2 shafts (wells for underground construction) will be arranged in vacant land locations, minimizing the area of ​​land clearance and not affecting the traffic of existing routes.

As for option 2, the unit proposed a scale of 6 lanes with 3 lanes per tunnel, the route length is more than 1.7km. In this option, the closed tunnel, open tunnel and 2 shaft holes are arranged at the locations on the existing road surface of Ly Thai To and Nguyen Thi Dinh streets, so there is no need to clear the land during tunnel construction. However, it will affect traffic on these two routes.

According to the representative of Fecon Joint Stock Company, the proposed options are only suggestions for the locality and do not have full detailed data on geology and related planning. Therefore, the unit will study more carefully to choose the appropriate option.

According to Mr. Nguyen Bon, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport, the Cat Lai Bridge project has been assigned by the Dong Nai Provincial People's Committee to the Provincial Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board to study and coordinate with Ho Chi Minh City to have an implementation plan.

In fact, this bridge has been planned for a long time but has not been implemented yet, although the leaders of Dong Nai province and the people are looking forward to it. However, the proposed plan has mainly been to build a bridge connecting the two localities, while the unit's idea of ​​building a tunnel is very new.

Therefore, the leaders of the Department of Transport requested that the enterprise should have a specific report so that the Department can coordinate with the Provincial Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board to work on selecting the most suitable and effective solution. At the same time, Fecon Joint Stock Company needs to work and connect with the functional agencies of Ho Chi Minh City to propose ideas.

Other units said that enterprises must have specific data to complete the report to propose to the authorities. In addition, there needs to be more specific analysis and comparison between the bridge and tunnel construction options to have a suitable choice. In particular, the total investment factor should be noted.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/hai-phuong-an-de-xuat-xay-ham-thay-pha-cat-lai-ra-sao-192241129190301082.htm