Dong Nai wants to expand the HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Tiep highway to 12 lanes
Dong Nai province thinks that the National Highway 51 to Ho Chi Minh City nowadays is often congested during rush hour and holidays, while the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway is also overloaded. The opening of additional lanes on this expressway also aims to ensure a synchronized transport infrastructure when Long Thanh International Airport is put into operation.
Bury your feet on the highway
5 years before the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway with a length of about 55km to open the entire route (phase 1 with 4 lanes and 2 emergency stopping lanes), has contributed to shortening the distance and time. Traveling between Ho Chi Minh City and the Southeast provinces. People are very happy when traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to Long Thanh District (Dong Nai) by the highway for only 20 minutes instead of 60 minutes, from Ho Chi Minh City to Vung Tau is shortened to just over an hour compared to before.
From Ho Chi Minh City to Dau Giay T-junction (heading to the Central, Northern provinces or toward Lien Khuong, Da Lat, Lam Dong, Central Highlands), follow the old route about 70km long, travel time It takes 3 hours due to frequent congestion. If traveling on the highway will shorten 20km and time is only 1 hour, and reduce 20-30% of transportation costs.
Sticking to the highway for 3 years, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien (living in To Ngoc Van Street, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City) said that because of the shortening time, her company has changed the workshop. Assembling machines into Long Thanh to take advantage of abundant labor, cheap land rental costs … “Early in the morning, the company employees drove to An Phu intersection, District 2, then boarded the bus to pick up and drop down. factory work. Average travel time is about 30-40 minutes “- Ms Hien said.
But according to Hien, recently the density of vehicles has increased causing traffic on the highway “flickering”, sometimes takes up to several hours. “For example, at 16:45, the employee boarded the car to return to Ho Chi Minh City, if the traffic jam, when leaving the car to pick up and go home was nearly 19h. Like picking me up, cooking rice … “- Ms Hien said.
Also according to Hien, at one point the company driver chose to follow the highway instead of going to the highway. But the highway situation was no better, and it was congested constantly. “There was a day when there was a congestion, the bus was coming from Ho Chi Minh City at 7 o’clock but 9 o’clock had not arrived at the factory. Going to the company was tired, not sober to work” – Ms Hien said.
Where is the highway !?
According to driver Le Van Kiet (District 9), Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway is no longer a highway. Designed for a speed of 120km / h, but sometimes to run very slowly because the car is too crowded, congestion must “stand still” for hours.
Talking more about the expressway after putting it into use, Mr. Vo Tan Duc – Chairman of Long Thanh District People’s Committee – said: “The introduction of the highway shortens the time, creating favorable conditions for people. However, the design of intersections in the roundabout area in the district area is not appropriate, so traffic is often congested and traffic accidents are frequent. ”
Also according to Mr. Duc, many local voters support the construction of the highway but they complain that the highway used soon happened traffic jams, accidents and subsidence …
According to the statistics of Vietnam Expressway Development Investment Corporation, Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay expressway always has the most crowded traffic density in the key traffic routes in the area. Male. Since 2015, the highway has only served 10 million vehicles but has now increased to 16.5 million.
Vehicle density on the route is unevenly distributed, focusing mainly on the sections heading to Ho Chi Minh City, with frequent local congestion at the top 20km of the expressway. At one point, the highway management unit has to advise people to choose the appropriate route to go in order to reduce the load on the highway, while ensuring the travel schedule.
According to the statistics of Vietnam Highway Engineering Services Joint Stock Company, which directly manages the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway, the number of vehicles is increasing beyond the capacity of traffic. Expressway travel leads to congestion at toll points. On average, weekends amount to 40,000 – 43,000 vehicles, holidays and New Year have up to 60,000 vehicles.
The locations often congested such as: Long Phuoc station, branch D – Highway 50, Dau Giay station, the roads connecting to Highway 51, Mai Chi Tho and Vo Chi Cong.
Particularly, the road leading to the highway on the HCM City side of the car must “crawl” regularly – Photo: QUANG DINH
Expanding into 12 lanes, urgent
According to the Ministry of Transport (MOT), with a scale of 4 lanes, the expressway is currently overloaded, often congested due to the increasing traffic volume on the route. Therefore, it is necessary to study and propose expansion investment plans to meet transport needs, serve socio-economic development and ensure traffic safety.
Talking about this, Mr. Tu Nam Thanh – Director of Department of Transport of Dong Nai province – said: “After Dong Nai has proposed to expand to 10-12 lanes on Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay highway , Ministry of Transport has also sent a document to the unit responsible for researching and proposing the plan