2-lane highway: “Pros and Cons”
The component project of the North-South expressway section from Cam Lo (Quang Tri) to La Son (Thua Thien Hue) is 98.3km in length with a total investment of 7,669 billion VND and will be operational from the end of 2022, connecting with the La Son-Tuy Loan expressway, a 77.5km road that has been in operation previously, forming a 178.6km expressway linking the provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue to Da Nang City, contributing to the local and regional socio-economic development, reducing the traffic density on National Highway 1A which is currently overloaded.
The Cam Lo-La Son expressway has only 2 lanes: It does not meet safety standards, posing a risk to traffic safety.
After the particularly serious traffic accident that occurred on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway in Phong Dien district, Thua Thien-Hue on February 18th, resulting in the death of three people from the same family, the authorities determined that it was caused by the driver of the car carrying the victims crossing the line illegally. However, many managers, traffic experts, and drivers on the North-South route have pointed out the deficiencies in the infrastructure on this road.
One of the reasons is the failure to meet the standards of a [2-lane] highway, resulting in a series of serious traffic accidents since its opening in 2021 until now.
The existing shortcomings on this expressway are: the expressway only has 2 lanes; some sections are narrow bottlenecks; there is almost no high-pressure lighting system along the road, no surveillance camera system…
According to some drivers’ analysis, most traffic accidents on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway recently occurred due to head-on collisions between two opposing vehicles. However, the biggest problem leading to accidents is the narrow road surface without a median barrier or a hard shoulder.
On the Cam Lo-La Son expressway, there are only 4-lane sections every 5-8km, with a hard shoulder in the middle for vehicles in the same direction to overtake. However, the overtaking points are only 1.5-2km long, then the two lanes merge into one like “a bottleneck”, posing a danger to drivers who are not familiar with the road. This is also the location where the 7-seat car with license plate 36A-485.67 had an accident, causing 3 deaths on the morning of February 18th.
The scene of the particularly serious traffic accident that occurred on the morning of February 18th, causing 3 deaths.
In addition, when driving on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway, the phone signal is very unstable, there are no gas stations, no rest areas… long stretches of prohibited overtaking, and a lack of surveillance cameras, so some drivers often flash their lights, honk their horns, and then suddenly accelerate to assert themselves, creating dangerous situations that could lead to accidents.
Facing the potential risk of traffic accidents on this road, at the National Assembly forum and in meetings with the central leaders, the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Ha Sy Dong – Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee, and Deputy Head of the Quang Tri Provincial Delegation to the National Assembly mentioned that Quang Tri Province has repeatedly proposed the urgent need to expand the Cam Lo-La Son expressway by 2 additional lanes.
“The Cam Lo-La Son expressway currently cannot be called an expressway. The reason is that other expressways in the country have invested evenly in 4 lanes, while the Cam Lo-La Son expressway has narrow bottlenecks, and the infrastructure is not synchronized, which easily leads to accidents.
In addition to investing in 2 additional lanes, this expressway needs to strengthen road signs; upgrade and reinforce the embankment system, emergency shelters, and rescue pits; enhance inspection, control, and installation of surveillance cameras and strict handling of reckless drivers, speeding… At the same time, urgently compensate for land clearance to invest in this expressway for completion and synchronization as soon as possible,” Mr. Ha Sy Dong recommended.
In the same viewpoint, traffic expert Nguyen Xuan Thuy said that many highways in our country, including many sections of the East route of the North-South expressway, have had to invest in construction that does not meet the highway standards, specifically with only 2 lanes.
“Due to limited investment funds, the highway infrastructure still has shortcomings such as narrow roads, no emergency lanes… so a number of new sections of the North-South expressway put into operation have limited speed, making them unable to be called expressways,” said Mr. Thuy.
Narrow roads, vehicles overtaking each other on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway can cause accidents.
Traffic expert Nguyen Xuan Thuy suggested that when investing in highways, all aspects must be synchronized from the beginning to meet standards and regulations, to avoid the situation of having to upgrade and expand after a few years, which will be difficult, costly, and patchy.
“The number of deaths and the number of damaged vehicles and the economic losses caused by traffic accidents cannot be counted, and the material damage caused can also result in significant economic losses. Therefore, we need to calculate to complete it properly, rather than adding a few lanes later, which will be very fragile, difficult, cost more than investing once…” said Mr. Thuy.
Reviewing the dangerous shortcomings on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway immediately
Immediately after the particularly serious traffic accident on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway in Thua Thien Hue province, the Prime Minister issued a directive to the ministers in charge of the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transport, and the Chairmen of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities to remedy the aftermath.
At the same time, the Prime Minister requested the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee to directly chair a meeting with relevant agencies and forces to assess the direct causes of the accident, implement measures to address the existing shortcomings, and determine the responsibilities of the organizations and individuals involved according to the Prime Minister’s directions.
Since its operation, the Cam Lo-La Son expressway has regularly experienced accidents, and this risk has also been reported by drivers.
On February 19th, a delegation from the National Traffic Safety Committee led by Mr. Tran Huu Minh, Head of the Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, came to inspect the scene of the accident, conduct a survey on the road, and work with Departments, localities, and relevant units regarding the road traffic accident that occurred at Km48+200 on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway in Thua Thien Hue province.
Assessing the causes of the traffic accidents that occurred on the two-lane La Son-Tuy Loan expressway (on January 23rd, 2024) and the Cam Lo-La Son expressway (on February 18th, 2024) within the past month, Mr. Tran Huu Minh, Head of the Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said that when traffic accidents occur, the authorities will consider the direct causes and handle the responsibilities of the relevant organizations and individuals. The final official causes will be announced by the authorities.
According to Mr. Minh, the Prime Minister has given very clear directions in particularly serious traffic accidents, in addition to clarifying the direct causes, it is necessary to clarify other related causes in order to serve the work of preventing similar traffic accidents in the future.
This process requires the investigative agencies and utilized experts (if any) to review all factors in the traffic system starting from regulations, rules, standards, vehicles, drivers, infrastructure, and traffic organization, education, propaganda, and punishment…
Moreover, in order to prevent reckless driving on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway that poses a high risk of accidents, the Traffic Police propose the need to have a speed monitoring system and lanes to impose penalties, similar to National Highway 1.
After two consecutive traffic accidents occurred on the two-lane La Son-Tuy Loan expressway (on January 23rd, 2024) and the Cam Lo-La Son expressway (on February 18th, 2024), resulting in 5 deaths and over 20 injuries, the authorities need to determine the causes of the accidents and take action. At the same time, it is also necessary to clarify other causes in the entire traffic system to prevent and limit similar accidents from happening.
Was the construction of the Cam Lo-La Son expressway in compliance with the design?
On February 19th, Mr. Uong Viet Dung, Chief of Office and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport, said that many opinions have been received regarding the accident in which 3 people died on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway, partly due to the road not meeting expressway standards and not guaranteeing safety. However, the final cause must wait for the conclusion of the investigative agency, and then determine the responsibilities of the relevant parties.
Mr. Uong Viet Dung believes that regardless of the scale of the expressway, whether it is fully allocated or phased investment, people must obey traffic laws, rules, ensure the speed… The Ministry of Transport is still directing specialized agencies, management units, and expressway operators to monitor the developments, situations that arise on newly opened expressways.
According to the representative of the Ho Chi Minh Road Management Board, the representative of the investor of the Cam Lo-La Son expressway, the Board is coordinating with functional agencies to review, evaluate in order to implement measures to overcome the existing shortcomings of the Cam Lo-La Son expressway after a period of operation, in order to organize traffic reasonably on the Cam Lo-La Son expressway.
Regarding the Cam Lo-La Son expressway, where most sections only have 2 lanes and no hard median barrier, the representative of the Ho Chi Minh Road Management Board said that due to difficult budget conditions and limited social resources, the Cam Lo-La Son expressway was implemented in phases. In the first phase, the construction scale was limited to 2 or 4 lanes, so when put into operation, it did not meet the standards.
“It is expected that in 2-3 weeks, the Ho Chi Minh Road Management Board will report to the Ministry of Transport on the file for expanding the Cam Lo-La Son expressway to 4 lanes (2 lanes for each direction) with a hard median barrier. At that time, not only will the existing shortcomings be overcome, especially the convenience of vehicle overtaking compared to having only 2 lanes, but it will also ensure synchronization with the East route of the North-South expressway that has been built and is under construction,” the representative of the Ho Chi Minh Road Management Board said.
