People flock back to their hometowns for New Year's holiday, Rach Mieu bridge is jammed

On the first day of the 2024 New Year holiday, people in Ho Chi Minh City and the eastern provinces continued to carry their luggage back to their hometowns, causing traffic jams in some areas, especially Rach Mieu bridge spanning Ben Tre and Tien Giang provinces.

From morning to noon on December 30, at the foot of Rach Mieu Bridge (My Tho City, Tien Giang), the number of vehicles pouring in increased day by day. Cars and trucks moved slowly in the outer lane, while motorbikes crowded the inner lane.

Người dân ùn ùn về quê nghỉ Tết Dương lịch, cầu Rạch Miễu kẹt cứng - 1 — Busy traffic, following each other across Rach Mieu bridge (Photo: Contributor).

Traffic police forces of the two provinces must continuously prioritize traffic flow for vehicles from Tien Giang to Ben Tre and vice versa.

Due to the large number of vehicles, many cars drove into the motorbike lane, causing a long traffic jam. Motorbikes had to line up for more than 1km on the Tien Giang side, waiting for about 20 minutes to cross the bridge.

Người dân ùn ùn về quê nghỉ Tết Dương lịch, cầu Rạch Miễu kẹt cứng - 2 — Motorbikes crowded on the sidewalk (Photo: Contributor).

Mr. Nguyen Nhat Duy (29 years old, from Tra Vinh, working in Ho Chi Minh City) said that the way back to his hometown has to go through Rach Mieu bridge. Knowing that the bridge is often congested, he took the opportunity to leave early today.

However, traffic jams began to occur more than 1km from the foot of the bridge. It took the young man 30 minutes to get to the other side of the bridge, while it normally takes less than 15 minutes to travel.

A male driver named Hong Phat shared that traffic was only clear from Rach Mieu bridge on the Ben Tre side, while the Ap Bac intersection to Rach Mieu bridge (Tien Giang bank) was more congested.

"Motorbikes still squeeze to the side to pass, but cars and larger vehicles still have to inch their way across the bridge," the male driver added.

On December 30, the Rach Mieu Bridge BOT toll station had to stop collecting tolls for about 10 minutes in the direction from Ben Tre to Tien Giang. The night before, the station had also stopped collecting tolls 4 times due to traffic jams.

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