Why Is the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway Still Lagging Despite Having a Ready Site?

On November 19, the Secretary of the Long Thanh District Party Committee (Dong Nai) and functional departments of the Long Thanh District People’s Committee held a working session with Project Management Unit 85 under the Ministry of Transport, the investor of Component Project 2 of the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway project, regarding the implementation progress of Component Project 2 – the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway section passing through Long Thanh district.

Previously, at the meeting of the Steering Committee for key projects of the province, Vice Chairman of the Long Thanh District People’s Committee Tran Van Than requested the provincial leaders to instruct Project Management Unit 85 – the investor of Component Project 2 of the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway project, to direct contractors to increase machinery and manpower for project construction.

According to the People’s Committee of Long Thanh district, for Component Project 2, the district has handed over a lot of ground. However, upon inspection, the contractors did not arrange for means and manpower to carry out the construction. Therefore, Long Thanh district proposed that Project Management Unit 85 direct the contractors to implement the construction to ensure progress.

Component Project 2 of the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway project, passing through Long Thanh district, has a length of 18km. To implement the project, Long Thanh district had to revoke land with an area of more than 180 hectares. Up to now, the district has handed over nearly 137 hectares of land, accounting for more than 91% of the total area to be handed over.

According to Project Management Unit 85, for the two construction packages of Component Project 2, the contractors are carrying out 51 construction sites, mobilizing 460 personnel and 184 equipment units. The construction output of Component Project 2 up to now is about VND 807 billion out of a total output of nearly VND 4,300 billion, achieving nearly 20% of the total output value.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Director of Project Management Unit of Component Project 2 of the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway, said that up to now, the province of Dong Nai has handed over about 85% of the area. However, only 68% of this area is actually constructible, as the rest is occupied by rivers, canals, and transversal roads and bridges that have been handed over but cannot be constructed due to technical infrastructure that has not yet been relocated.

According to Mr. Ha, the provincial and district authorities approved the compensation plan and confirmed the handover of the site. However, many households have received compensation but have not agreed to the construction because they have not been allocated resettlement land. In addition, from July to October, the rainy season posed significant challenges to the construction process.

Mr. Ha also mentioned another obstacle to the construction progress: the lack of soil for embankment construction. The entire Component Project 2 requires about 3 million cubic meters of soil, and Component Project 1 needs about 2 million cubic meters. Currently, the only source of soil is from commercial mines, but the quantity is not sufficient, and it needs to be processed. As a result, only about 100,000 cubic meters of soil have been delivered to the construction site so far. Regarding the Phuoc Binh mine (Long Thanh) with an area of about 16 hectares, the province is in the process of completing the licensing procedure for exploitation, with an expected volume of more than 1 million cubic meters. With the arrival of the dry season, the contractors are intensifying construction and have achieved an output of over 50%.

At the working session, Mr. Duong Minh Dung, Secretary of the Long Thanh District Party Committee, requested the investor and contractors to promote and strengthen personnel and machinery for the urgent implementation of the project. Mr. Dung also requested the district’s functional agencies to address the project’s shortcomings, encourage households to hand over the project site, and propose to the province to soon complete the procedures for the soil mine to solve the problem of soil shortage.