In the afternoon of April 23, the People’s Committee of Binh Duong Province held a press conference to provide information on the socio-economic situation in Q1/2024, chaired by Mr. Vo Anh Tuan, Head of the Provincial People’s Committee’s Office, and Mr. Le Tuan Anh, Director of the Department of Information and Communications.
At the press conference, a reporter from Tien Phong newspaper requested the relevant departments to provide information related to the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 13 . “The project to widen National Highway 13 is underway, but the public is wondering why the ground level of the cleared and asphalted land is lower than that of the old road?”.
Regarding this matter, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Thuan, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport, said that according to the design documents, the BOT project to upgrade and expand National Highway 13, from Vinh Binh Bridge to Le Hong Phong crossroads, will expand 2 more lanes on the right side of the route, from 6 lanes to 8 lanes.
According to Mr. Thuan, the existing road surface will retain its height, while the edge of the widened road will have a finished height about 20 – 25cm lower than the existing asphalt edge (due to the cross-slope of the road surface, an average of 2%), and the widened road surface will have two layers of asphalt concrete: the upper layer (layer 2) 5 cm thick, and the lower layer (layer 1) 7 cm thick.
The project to upgrade and expand National Highway 13 is being implemented to acquire land along one direction from Ho Chi Minh City to Binh Duong.
Currently, the project has been constructed according to the design documents and asphalt concrete layer 1 has been laid on some sections; on these sections, the level of the existing road edge is higher than that of the widened road edge (asphalt concrete layer 1 has been laid) by about 30 cm, and when completed, the cross-slope of the road surface will be ensured as designed.
Mr. Thuan said that during the implementation of construction quality management tasks, the Department of Transport will coordinate with relevant departments to inspect and review the construction process in accordance with regulations.
Earlier, in April 2022, Binh Duong started construction of the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 13, with a length of 12.7 km and an investment of nearly VND 1,400 billion, implemented in the form of BOT ( build-operate-transfer ).
The power grid at the project has not been relocated. For sections where the site clearance has been handed over, construction is being carried out first.
The project affects 552 households, the most of which are in Thuan An City with 470 households, 58 organizations, and the rest in Thu Dau Mot City.
During the project implementation, there were difficulties due to the relocation of electrical grid infrastructure . It was not until the beginning of 2024 that the parties involved agreed on the costs of relocating the power grid .
Binh Duong plans to complete the relocation of the power grid and hand over 100% of the site clearance in Q2/2024 and complete the entire project to upgrade and expand National Highway 13 in 2024.
