Force majeure related to the selection of contractors for Package J3-1 - construction of the remaining part of Phuoc Khanh Bridge will push the completion time of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Project to the end of September 2026.
Force majeure related to the selection of contractors for Package J3-1 - construction of the remaining part of Phuoc Khanh Bridge will push the completion time of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Project to the end of September 2026.
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| Package J3-1 - construction of the remaining part of Phuoc Khanh Bridge is the final bottleneck in the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Construction Project. |
New schedule critical path
New variables have emerged related to the implementation of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Construction Project, with the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) as the investor and the Ministry of Transport (MOT) as the investment decision-maker. Specifically, last weekend, the Ministry of Transport issued Document No. 12512/BGTVT-TTr requesting the Government leaders to consider adjusting the project implementation time to September 30, 2026.
The Ministry of Transport also requested the Ministries of Planning and Investment, Finance, Justice, and Construction to provide their opinions on the proposal to adjust the implementation time according to Submission No. 12512/BGTVT-TTr during the appraisal process of the proposal to adjust the investment policy of the Project submitted by the Ministry of Transport in Submission No. 9536/TTr-BGTVT dated August 30, 2024.
The Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Construction Project was approved by the Prime Minister to adjust the investment policy in Decision No. 791/QD-TTg dated July 3, 2023 and the Ministry of Transport approved the adjustment of the Project in Decision No. 961/QD-BGTVT dated August 4, 2023. Accordingly, the total investment of the Project is VND 29,586,914 billion, using loans from the Japan International Cooperation Bank (JICA), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Government's counterpart capital and capital arranged by VEC; the total completion time is September 30, 2025.
During the implementation process, because the Japanese contractor did not continue to implement Package J3 - construction of Phuoc Khanh Bridge and approach road, and JICA agreed not to continue to finance the remaining volume of Package J3, VEC had to arrange capital to complete it. Therefore, based on VEC's request, the Ministry of Transport submitted Document No. 9536/TTr-BGTVT to the Prime Minister for approval to adjust the investment policy of the Project with 2 main changes.
Specifically, the Project investment capital structure will be adjusted with ADB loan capital being VND 7,085.608 billion (down VND 980.094 billion); JICA loan capital being VND 9,226.265 billion (down VND 1,361.093 billion); counterpart capital being VND 3,872.37 billion (unchanged) and VEC self-arranged capital being VND 9,402.671 billion (up VND 1,855.101 billion).
In addition, the Ministry of Transport proposed to adjust the project implementation period to December 31, 2025, instead of September 30, 2025 as approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 791/QD-TTg. Thus, the project implementation period is only 13 months, while it is necessary to carry out procedures including: adjusting the investment policy, adjusting the project to use VEC's self-arranged capital for Package J3-1; organizing bidding, evaluating contractor selection results, signing contracts; mobilizing construction sites, and carrying out construction.
If the above procedures are carried out sequentially, the Project implementation time needs to be adjusted to the third quarter of 2026. “To shorten the progress of the implementation of Package J3-1 in order to soon complete and put the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway into operation, VEC has proposed to organize the selection of contractors in parallel with the implementation of procedures to adjust the Project investment policy so that construction can be completed in December 2025,” said the leader of the Ministry of Transport.
Cautious progress
In Document No. 12512/BGTVT-TTr, the Ministry of Transport gave explanations for having to continue adjusting the completion time of the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Construction Project to before December 31, 2025. The Ministry of Transport said that this deadline was established on the basis of VEC organizing the selection of contractors in parallel with the implementation of procedures to adjust the investment policy of the Project in order to complete construction and put the expressway into operation before December 31, 2025.
In fact, VEC issued the invitation to bid (E-HSMT) for Package J3-1 on July 18, 2024 in the form of open domestic bidding via the National Bidding Network System, with a duration of 13 months; the closing date for bids is August 6, 2024; to date, VEC has completed the bid evaluation. However, the results cannot be announced and the contract cannot be negotiated or signed due to waiting for approval of policy adjustments and investment project adjustments to use VEC's capital.
With the current situation of adjusting the investment policy, it is expected that the Project will complete the procedures for adjusting the investment policy by January 2025 and the procedures for adjusting the investment project by February 2025. On that basis, VEC will have sufficient legal basis to negotiate and sign a contract with the contractor to implement the construction of Package J3-1 in March 2025. Thus, with a minimum construction time of 13 months, the contractor will be able to complete Package J3-1 by April 2026.
Since this is a construction package to complete Phuoc Khanh Bridge, a large cable-stayed bridge with the highest clearance in Vietnam (55 m), the construction of the Vietnamese contractor may encounter difficulties. Therefore, VEC proposes to adjust the project implementation time to September 30, 2026, an additional 5 months compared to the planned date to accommodate unforeseen difficulties.
In addition, adjusting the project implementation time to September 30, 2026 will also facilitate the completion of Package XL-NG51 - construction of the National Highway 51 intersection expected in April 2026. It is known that Package J3-1 is the final bottleneck in the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Construction Project. VEC is closely following the set targets for the remaining items of the project.
Accordingly, the western section (Km0+700 ÷ Km21+739.5) using ADB loan capital and VEC capital arrangement will be opened to traffic before April 30, 2025. The middle section (Km21+739.5 ÷ Km32+450), including the construction site of Package J1 (Binh Khanh bridge and access road) will be completed before September 30, 2025.
The eastern section (Km32+450 ÷ Km57+700) using ADB loan capital and VEC capital arrangement will also be opened to traffic before April 30, 2025. "As for the newly added Package XL-NG51 (construction of a complete interchange with National Highway 51 and Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway), VEC is organizing a bidding process and is expected to be completed in April 2026," informed the leader of the Ministry of Transport.
From January 2019 to November 2022, the Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway Construction Project was not allocated ODA capital, leading to the contractor of Package J3 (construction of Phuoc Khanh Bridge) stopping construction from July 2019, refusing to perform the remaining work, and proposing to terminate the Contract. Therefore, VEC had to organize a bidding for Package J3-1 (remaining volume of Package J3), but no Japanese contractor participated (a binding condition of the STEP loan is that the eligible main contractor must have Japanese nationality).
In order to select a construction contractor, VEC has proposed to relax the binding conditions on the contractor's valid nationality in the VN14-P3 Loan Agreement so that Vietnamese contractors can participate as main construction contractors/independent contractors.
Since March 2024, the Government leaders and the Ministries of Transport, Finance, Planning and Investment, and the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises have discussed with the Japanese side many times, but have not received a timely response from the Japanese side.
Due to the urgent need to implement Package J3-1, VEC sent Document No. 1524/VEC-ĐTXD dated June 13, 2024 to JICA requesting to transfer Package J3-1 to use VEC's capital instead of JICA's loan. On June 14, 2024, JICA Vietnam issued Official Letter No. 202406140002 notifying its non-objection to the proposal according to the content proposed by VEC.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/lai-noi-tien-do-toan-tuyen-cao-toc-ben-luc---long-thanh-d230988.html
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