More than 650 km of North Expressway

TPO – Although the Government and the Ministry of Transport have requested the completion of essential items to serve people during the year-end peak season, more than 650 km of highways that have been open to traffic for more than a year are still without standard rest stops and fuel stations.

Current status of highway

Mai Son – National Highway 45 and Nghi Son – Dien Chau expressways are 2 of 11 expressway projects in the 2017 – 2021 period (phase 1) to be opened to traffic in 2023, with the highest traffic volume and the construction site for rest stops has also been basically cleared by Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces, but currently there are still no rest stops and fuel stations as required.

The rest stop area on Nghi Son - Dien Chau highway is surrounded by fences, and no rest stop or fuel station has been built according to standards.

Last weekend, when visiting the site of the project to build a rest stop that had been cleared by the locality, Tien Phong reporters noted that most of the land was still an empty lot surrounded by fences, with temporary shelters and mobile toilets built by the expressway project unit to serve people and vehicles traveling on the expressway so they could stop and rest if needed. The entire project site, which is several hectares wide, has not yet been built by the project investor to build a rest stop and fuel station as required.

At the site of the rest stop project in Dong Hoa commune, Dong Son district, Thanh Hoa province, part of the Mai Son - National Highway 45 project, according to the reporter's observation, the site was cleared by Thanh Hoa province on both sides of each road, each side is about 3 hectares wide, but currently there are only temporary shelters and mobile toilets. Due to the limited space at the temporary shelter, only 10 to 20 cars can be parked, and only a few container trucks can be parked, so the number of vehicles entering and exiting is very limited.

During the past weekend, there was a time when up to 7 container trucks stopped at this rest stop so that drivers could drink water and use the restroom, resulting in the parking lot having no more space for other cars to enter.

With the project site of the rest stop in Dien Hanh commune, Dien Chau district, Nghe An province, building a rest stop for the Nghi Son - Dien Chau expressway project, the project site of about 3 hectares on each side is also left empty, currently a small part is a temporary house and mobile toilet built by the project implementation unit for a long time.

Highway rest stops continue to miss deadlines

On January 14, in an interview with Tien Phong reporter, the leader of Vietnam Expressway Operation and Maintenance Joint Stock Company (VEC O&M) - the unit currently managing and operating the North-South Expressway from Mai Son (Ninh Binh) to Dien Chau (Nghe An) confirmed that the North-South Expressway has just completed phase 1 from Ninh Binh to Nghe An (150 km long) and has not yet built rest stops or fuel stations according to standards.

Small temporary rest stops on the North-South expressways are overloaded with traffic.

According to the plan, the 11 North-South expressway projects in phase 1 running through the provinces of Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Dong Nai with a length of more than 650 km will have 10 rest stops and refueling stations to serve people and vehicles traveling on the expressway. However, at the time of opening to traffic (2023), the investors of the 11 above projects (Project Management Boards, Ministry of Transport), investors have only completed the road section with a width of 2 lanes, no emergency lanes, no rest stops, no refueling stations.

To create synchronization and minimize risks when people and vehicles travel for a long time on the highway without a rest stop, in 2023-2024, the Government leaders and the Ministry of Transport have repeatedly requested relevant units to promptly deploy rest stop projects that have been planned. With the instructions in mid-2024, the Ministry of Transport requires that before the Lunar New Year of the year of At Ty, rest stops at projects that have found investors must complete basic items such as rest stops and gas stations.

However, according to Tien Phong reporters in recent days, 8 rest stop projects that have selected investors on the expressways, including: Mai Son - National Highway 45, Nghi Son - Dien Chau, Dien Chau - Bai Vot, Cam Lam - Vinh Hao, have not yet been implemented.

Commenting on this, a representative of the Expressway Department (Ministry of Transport) - the unit that selects investors to implement medium-sized rest stop projects - said that the progress being implemented by investors has not met the set schedule, the reason being the slow reception of land from localities, leading to the progress of implementing rest stops not being able to be implemented. Currently, the Department is requesting the winning investors to receive the land, infrastructure of temporary rest stops and shelters to organize and rearrange them appropriately.

Reporter Group

Source: https://tienphong.vn/hon-650-km-cao-toc-bac-nam-van-trang-tram-dung-nghi-post1709484.tpo