Government leaders "spread the fire" to build highways

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A series of recent highway projects have "spectacularly reached the finish line" under extremely strict construction conditions, with unprecedented contexts.

The milestone of the inauguration of two important sections of the North-South expressway on April 30 (Mai Son - National Highway 45 and Phan Thiet - Dau Giay, with a length of more than 162km) has contributed to realizing the dream of a expressway connecting the two ends of the country.

This is also the victory of the spirit of "overcoming the sun and rain" to bring key traffic projects to the finish line as committed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, that is "what is said must be done, what is committed must be implemented, what is implemented must have specific results".

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At the construction site of the Bai Vot - Ham Nghi section of the North - South Eastern Expressway Project, phase 2021-2025 (implemented by the joint venture of Vinaconex Joint Stock Corporation and the Ministry of National Defense's 319 Corporation), we clearly felt the bustling and determined atmosphere of hundreds of workers working directly here.

Mr. Pham The Cong (Director of Vinaconex Executive Board) with more than 20 years of experience in constructing key transport projects across the country, shared that he has never seen such a determined working spirit in bringing transport projects ahead of schedule to the finish line as he does now.

Of the total 35km of the Ham Nghi – Bai Vot route, Vinaconex directly constructed 22.35km from Bai Vot to the end of Can Loc district. This is a route with a simple structure but passes through a weak ground area, so it requires a lot of geological and technical processing and treatment.

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Due to the harsh weather in the Central region, especially when it is hot, Mr. Cong said that the construction pace at the site usually starts from 4am to 10am, then continues from 2pm to 10pm. During peak periods, workers can carry out construction stages through the night, holidays, and Tet with the spirit of "3 shifts, 4 shifts", "if there is not enough work during the day, take advantage of working at night".

“The number of Vinaconex staff and workers at the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi construction site is currently about 700 people (20-30% are local workers), divided into 15 bridge construction teams, 15 road construction teams; with nearly 400 cars, motorbikes, equipment... to continuously change shifts, in order to soon bring the project to the finish line,” said Mr. Cong.

At the time of signing the contract to receive the project on the first day of 2023, Mr. Cong said that the stages and procedures from design, bidding, and contractor appointment were all carried out in a very short time.

Although the initial phase had to be "still" because there were no raw materials or land clearance mechanisms, with the strong direction from the Prime Minister, ministries, branches and localities mobilized all resources, using many mechanisms to thoroughly resolve these problems.

“Untying these knots has continuously created momentum for the project after many months of being inactive,” Mr. Cong said, adding that currently, 95-99% of the earth and sand have been filled, and the entire project has reached over 70% of its volume.

According to Mr. Cong, in the past, to obtain land, sand and raw materials for highway construction, it took about 6 months to carry out procedures for opening bids and bidding for materials. However, with the urgency of this project, since April 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has directed to cut all administrative procedures, and the source of materials is specifically provided for highway construction, thus shortening the time by 6-7 months.

The current material mines are directly assigned to contractors for management, exploitation and operation with the commitment that they will "only be used for highway projects".

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According to the contract, the Bai Vot – Ham Nghi route was to be completed on September 30, 2025, after which the Prime Minister requested to shorten the construction time by 3 months. However, in the latest progress inspection, the Government leader requested to continue shortening the progress, bringing the project to the finish line on April 30, 2025, half a year earlier than the original plan.

To realize this, Vinaconex and the investor are determined to speed up the progress, taking advantage of all favorable factors to shorten the construction time while still ensuring efficiency in terms of investment environment and economy.

The number of machines for construction was immediately mobilized 1.5 times more with more than 500 locomotives and equipment. The human resources instead of 500-600 as planned were also increased to more than 700 people, divided into teams working both day and night.

“Although the April 30 deadline is very stressful, we can make efforts to bring the project to the finish line,” said Mr. Cong, adding that all construction workers on the site or in the office responded to the determination passed down from the head of the Government.

The brothers who work overtime get a raise, are provided with meals and full benefits. They all work enthusiastically with high spirits, unlike during the subsidy period when they had to wait for the gong to ring before working, according to Mr. Cong.

With the spirit of working through holidays and Tet, he said that during the 4-day holiday on September 2nd, to take advantage of the favorable weather, the unit mobilized 100% of its workforce to stay and work.

Mr. Le Van Quyet (officer in charge of construction of Bai Vot - Ham Nghi expressway through Quang Loc, Trung Loc and Xuan Loc communes) also said that in the past few months, machinery and human resources have been increased at the construction site to be able to basically complete it before the rainy season.

Up to now, 95% of the earthwork has been completed, and 40% of the road surface structure has been completed. The immediate goal is to spread crushed stone, reinforce cement, asphalt concrete and auxiliary items such as traffic safety corridors, warning paint, signal signs, etc.

“I have never seen the construction momentum of the expressway as fierce as it is now. The closer we get to the finish line, the more urgent the momentum becomes. Everyone is highly focused, united in their determination to complete the work, ensuring the project is completed by April 30, 2025,” Mr. Quyet emphasized.

Although the construction time is constantly shortening and the pressure is increasing, according to Mr. Quyet, the expressway construction team always encourages each other to overcome current disadvantages to complete the common goal.

Pointing to Long Tuong mountain not far from the construction site, Mr. Quyet said that was the most difficult part of having to cut the mountain to make way for the highway.

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“Because Long Tuong Mountain is close to a residential area, it is impossible to blast rocks. For more than 15 months, we had to use hammers to chisel and manually break rocks with a total volume of 180,000m3 of rocks to be broken, which was very difficult,” this officer shared.

Besides, the difficulty also comes from the extremely harsh weather in the Central region, when it is sunny, the sun is harsh, but when it rains, it lasts for a long time, even a storm can directly destroy unfinished parts of the project, so it has to be started over.

However, looking at his colleagues who were busy working on each part of the work, Mr. Quyet affirmed that the goal of completing the project by April 30, 2025 as requested by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is completely feasible thanks to the great efforts and determination of everyone.

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Following engineer Tran Dang Phu to the Thanh Dong bridge construction site, the second largest bridge on the Can Tho – Hau Giang highway, Dan Tri reporters witnessed workers lowering beams and pouring concrete for the bridge deck. The rain suddenly poured down, and the entire concrete crew had to brave the rain and use tarpaulins to cover the newly poured concrete.

“It rains frequently this season, 2-3 times a day, each time lasting 30-60 minutes. The worst thing is when it rains while pouring concrete. We have to stop and wait for the rain to stop before continuing. If we stop for too long, the whole truck of concrete will have to be dumped,” Mr. Phu shared.

In the spirit of "overcoming the sun and conquering the rain" as directed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the contractor's representative said that if it rains lightly, the workers will still try to work, but if it rains heavily, they will temporarily stop and wait for the rain to stop.

Talking about the pressure of progress, Mr. Phu said that with the sections crossing canals, the bridge project must try to finish early to use the bridge surface as a service road for construction vehicles to move.

“As Thanh Dong Bridge is the border point of Can Tho and Hau Giang provinces, we must open the bridge by the end of this year, one year earlier than the overall project schedule, so the pressure on progress is very high,” the contractor representative shared.

Mr. Thai Truong Giang, Chairman of Hai Dang Group (contractor for the Hau Giang - Ca Mau expressway), recounted that after the project's groundbreaking date (January 1, 2023), the units spent about 11 months just waiting, unable to construct because there was no sand.

At that time, commercial sand was priced “sky-high”, nearly three times higher than the price announced by the State. “Enterprises buying sand at that price to bring to the construction site… would lose money,” said Mr. Giang.

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Faced with that situation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh gave strong instructions to overcome the difficulty by directly handing over the sand mine to the contractor.

“The Prime Minister sent many documents, convened many meetings, even called to give instructions… to come up with a policy to hand over the material mine to the contractor,” the contractor leader recalled.

But even though the Prime Minister has issued a policy, the Ministry of Transport is not resolute, so the work will not go anywhere. Mr. Giang also highly appreciated the Ministry of Transport's leaders' close monitoring of the construction site, sometimes taking the contractor to meet with provincial leaders to resolve problems.

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The high determination that the workers directly working on the highway construction site have repeatedly mentioned is thanks to the motivation passed down from the strong instructions of the Government, especially of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Starting a term with difficulties upon difficulties, the Government leaders have always been present in the "hottest" places to promptly inspire, remove obstacles and promote work.

It is difficult to fully count the trips of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his deputies to the construction sites of key transport projects, because since the beginning of his term, almost every weekend or holiday, Government leaders have gone to localities, visiting each project to encourage the spirit of workers.

During the recent April 30-May 1 holiday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited many transportation projects and created positive changes right from the ground up. He attended the inauguration ceremony of the Cam Lam - Vinh Hao Expressway on April 28. This is a project that the Prime Minister personally inspected three times and each time he set specific requirements on progress, as well as removed many obstacles for project construction.

Previously, when inspecting the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project and the eastern sections of the North-South Expressway, the Government leaders both encouraged and set strict requirements to ensure both progress and quality of the project.

Spirits such as “overcoming the sun and rain, not losing to the wind and storm”, “working during the day when there is not enough time, working at night”, “working through holidays and Tet”, “working in 3 shifts and 4 shifts”… have probably become too familiar and become the “brand” of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s directives.

That determination from the head of the Government quickly spread and transmitted motivation to localities, making it impossible for those who wanted to hesitate not to work.

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In mid-July, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also inspected and urged the progress of vertical and horizontal expressway projects in the Mekong Delta, including the Can Tho – Ca Mau expressway, the Chau Doc – Can Tho – Soc Trang expressway, the Cao Lanh – An Huu expressway, the My An – Cao Lanh expressway, the Ho Chi Minh road section Rach Soi – Ben Nhat, Go Quao – Vinh Thuan, etc.

On August 17, during his working trip to Dak Lak, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh inspected the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot expressway project, phase 1. The expressway is over 117km long, with a scale of 4 lanes, and a preliminary total investment of VND21,935 billion.

To clear the land and resettle people for this project, the Prime Minister has issued 12 directive documents related to the land clearance of the Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot project (including 10 conclusion notices and 2 telegrams of the Prime Minister). Up to now, the land acquisition work has reached 94%.

At the construction site, the Prime Minister was particularly impressed by the sharing of the team of officers, engineers and workers about the flexible construction organization suitable for the harsh weather, erratic sunshine and rain, working tirelessly and enthusiastically with the spirit of "overcoming the sun to overcome the rain".

Inquiring and thanking the people who gave up land to build the expressway, the Prime Minister hoped that people would continue to support, join hands, and share to implement the project.

The image of the Prime Minister and members of the Government delegation moving around the construction site has become familiar and is a great encouragement to thousands of officials, engineers and workers who are working day and night to build the highway.

He also did not forget to observe and listen to every small problem at the construction site to come up with solutions.

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The government leaders' trips are not only to encourage and motivate, but also to "see and hear" practical problems in order to make decisions to solve them right on the spot.

We are gradually reaching the “highway dream”, and it is clear that this dream did not suddenly come true, but was exchanged with a lot of sweat and effort, thanks to the strong direction of the Government with the spirit of “dare to think, dare to do, dare to innovate, dare to take responsibility, for the common good”.