Undertaking the construction of 8 km of Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway, contractor Trung Nam E&C went back and forth to find sand for the foundation, arranging barges to wait on the river to bring sand to the construction site.
Package XL01 of the 30km Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway project passing through Hau Giang province, started construction in January 2023. Contractors have cleared the road surface and excavated the soil to enter the embankment stage.
Undertaking the construction of 8 km of highway, to build the roadbed and some bridges, contractor Trung Nam E&C needs about 1.2 million m3 of sand, but so far has only been allocated nearly 450,000 m3, still lacking about 700,000 m3. The lack of sand has delayed the progress of the foundation, after nearly a year, the contractor has only completed about 1.5 km.
Mr. Ho Minh Duong, Director of the XL01 Package Management Board (under Trung Nam E&C), shared that as soon as the project started, the contractor rushed to find sand mines throughout the provinces of Vinh Long, An Giang, Dong Thap, lining up with other contractors to be allocated sand from the locality. In 2023, the enterprise was allocated a small amount of sand from three mines.
This year, as the local sand mines are running out, contractors have had to make do with it, exploiting sand from a river mine in Hong Ngu district, Dong Thap province. However, this mine is currently only able to excavate about 3,000 cubic meters of sand per day, Trung Nam E&C is able to buy about 1,000 cubic meters, while the demand for sand for leveling the ground is 3,000 cubic meters per day.
"We have to wait for each cubic meter of sand, barges are always waiting at the river to bring sand to the construction site. Due to the lack of sand, there are sections of the road that have not been completed for a month. We are very worried about the progress of the project," said Mr. Duong.
Contractors lack sand to level the North-South Expressway section through Long My district, Hau Giang province in March 2024. Photo: Phuong Linh
Sand is being mined in small amounts, not to mention the sand mines are being protested by local residents because of the risk of riverbank erosion, causing the highway construction site to be temporarily halted from time to time. The team of workers and engineers have to switch to building bridges instead of roads. "The contractor is determined to carry out the construction, and the local authorities are supporting the sand mining, but the scarcity of sand has made the project difficult," said Mr. Duong.
Meanwhile, the contractor cannot buy sand from the market because according to regulations, the materials used for highway construction must have a clear origin and an invoice. The price of sand is calculated according to the state unit price, which is lower than the market price, so if the contractor buys sand from outside, he will lose money. It is expected that by October, the contractor will need to complete the foundation to increase the load, but due to the lack of sand, it is not known when it will be completed, the package is 8 months behind schedule, Mr. Duong said.
The Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway project is also facing a sand shortage. In package 43 through Chau Thanh and Chau Phu districts in An Giang province, contractor Phuong Thanh needs about 1.5 million cubic meters of sand to build the foundation of 7 km of road, but has only received 80,000 cubic meters from sand mines in An Giang so far. This amount is only enough to build the foundation of public roads and bridge foundations, the entire main road has been waiting for sand since the end of 2023.
According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Tuan, Executive Director of Package 43, while waiting for sand, the entire construction team must focus on building the bridge on the route. The contractor ensures the progress of the bridge construction, but the road is very difficult due to the lack of sand for the foundation. Package 43 is about 3 months behind schedule.
Piling construction at package 43 of Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway. Photo: Phuong Linh
Lack of foundation materials (sand, soil) has been a common problem in traffic projects over the past three years. The North and Central regions still have soil and rock mines to compensate. The South has no soil mines, only relying on sand mines while river sand resources are running out. Two key traffic projects in the South are seriously lacking sand: the Can Tho - Ca Mau and Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressways.
At the 9th meeting of the State Steering Committee for important national projects and works in February, the Ministry of Transport said that the Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway is expected to need 19 million m3 of sand for embankment, and the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, and Vinh Long have arranged a supply of 16.02 million m3, leaving a shortage of 2.98 million m3.
These provinces are organizing sand mining with a total reserve of 11.6 million m3, but the supply situation is very slow. By the end of January 2024, the total volume of sand brought to the Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway construction site had only reached more than 2 million m3.
At the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang project, Hau Giang province and Can Tho city have just identified the sand source from An Giang at about 5 million m3 (reaching 38%), requiring neighboring localities to support 8.2 million m3 of sand. The Ministry of Transport assessed that the implementation of procedures for granting sand mines to contractors is still slow, especially in the agreement with owners on the transfer price and land lease because the owners offered prices much higher than the state compensation price.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Mekong Delta currently has 60 licenses for sand mining from 2020 to 2029 with a total reserve of more than 63 million m3, and a total exploitation capacity of nearly 14 million m3 per year. To date, the remaining sand reserves of the Mekong Delta are about 37 million m3.
Meanwhile, in terms of transport infrastructure alone, the 6 expressways to be implemented in the 2022-2025 period in this area will need nearly 50 million m3 of sand, of which about 17 million m3 in 2023 and about 30 million m3 in 2024-2025. In addition, provincial transport projects will need about 36 million m3 of sand in 2023-2024.
Thus, even if the remaining 37 million cubic meters of sand are exploited, the Mekong Delta localities will only be able to meet about 40% of the sand demand for transport infrastructure in the next three years.
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