As the Ministry of Transport plans to simultaneously start construction on four highway and beltway projects on June 18, 2023, I suddenly came across a rather related story.
In early 2005, I had my first house in Tan Hung ward, district 7, Ho Chi Minh City. At that time, Kenh Te bridge connecting district 4 with district 7 had just been inaugurated, looking modern and beautiful. The bridge was nearly 800 m long, 15.1 m wide but seemed wide because the traffic flow at that time was quite light. Every day I crossed Kenh Te bridge, feeling cheerful but only 5 years later I was panicked because of frequent traffic jams on the bridge and at both ends. That situation lasted for many years, becoming more and more suffocating. Many people were exhausted after work, and when crossing the bridge, they were stuck in traffic for a long time, so they were stressed and couldn't stand it, so they sold their house. Me too!
In mid-late 2018 - less than 15 years later - the Ho Chi Minh City public works sector widened the bridge from 15.1 m to 16.5 m, costing 90 billion VND. Only 1.4 m wider but so costly, while it is difficult to solve the problem of traffic congestion fundamentally and permanently. In a few years, the old situation will repeat itself. The 15 m wide Rach Mieu Bridge, connecting Ben Tre and Tien Giang, in use since 2009, will soon fall into a similar situation.
Borrowing the above case to mention the main topic is the vision in planning and designing highways, especially when projects from North to South are increasing. Everyone has seen how bitter a lesson the Trung Luong - Ho Chi Minh City highway left. This route is 62 km long, inaugurated in 2010, at that time people were very happy but did not notice why there were only 4 lanes? A few years later, when traffic volume increased, a series of problems appeared: degraded road surface, constant accidents, and... traffic jams. Allowed to drive 100 km/h, drivers sometimes cried because of the snail speed. Now they are considering expanding it to 10 lanes, which will certainly be extremely expensive.
Look at that to know how to worry about other expressways: Trung Luong - My Thuan 51 km, only 4 lanes, too few sections have emergency lanes; Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet 101 km long, also 4 lanes; Nha Trang - Cam Lam 49 km, 4 lanes... Narrow roads without emergency lanes, the maximum speed of 80 km/h or 100 km/h, 120 km/h... is not very meaningful. In the next few years, these routes will hardly avoid the mistakes of the Trung Luong - Ho Chi Minh City expressway.
According to the Road Network Development Plan for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister, by 2030, the whole country will have about 5,004 km of expressways (an increase of about 3,841 km compared to 2021); by 2050, the expressway network will be basically completed with 41 routes, with a total length of about 9,014 km. Looking at the above overall figures, we feel excited, especially when we are preparing to start construction on the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project and 3 expressway projects: Khanh Hoa - Buon Ma Thuot, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau, Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang. However, concerns about the vision are still evident when "absorbing" specific lessons.
Our grandparents say "Three times of house repair is more expensive than one time of house construction". When it comes to highways, there must be a vision for a hundred years.
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