Vehicles are held up in traffic around a tollgate on National Highway 51 in Dong Nai Province en route from HCMC to Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province on February 7, 2019. The construction of an expressway is expected to ease traffic congestion on the highway

On Tuesday, the government of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province held a meeting with Transport Engineering Design Inc. (TEDI), which is serving as the consultant of the expressway project, reported Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper.

The project is divided into two sections. The first section connects Bien Hoa City of Dong Nai Province with Phu My Town of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province at a length of 46.8 kilometers, while the other is some 31 kilometers long and links the town with the beach city of Vung Tau, a site popular with tourists.

The entire Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway requires more than VND23.6 trillion in construction costs and over VND2.1 trillion for connecting and urban roads.

The province’s chairman, Nguyen Van Tho, asked various departments and agencies to take on board three investment options proposed by TEDI while drawing up the prefeasibility plan for the project, with special attention being given to the section through Dong Nai Province.

The first option is to make investments in the entire expressway, including more than VND4 trillion from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, over VND10 trillion from Dong Nai Province and the central Government and some VND11 trillion from the private sector.

The second option is for the two provinces to spend more than VND6.8 billion on site clearance and call for private investors to add some VND11 trillion.

More than VND5 trillion will be needed from the central Government to finance the construction of the expressway, while over VND2 trillion will be provided by Ba Ria-Vung Tau to build connecting roads.

The final option is to divide the project into two subprojects.

The first subproject will require more than VND5 trillion from Dong Nai Province and the central Government and some VND2 trillion from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for site clearance. Authorities will call for private-sector investment of some VND7.8 billion for basic construction costs.

The second subproject will cost more than VND10 trillion, with VND2 trillion coming from Ba Ria-Vung Tau and the remainder from the public investment fund of the central Government.

Early last month, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung gave the Ba Ria-Vung Tau authority the go-ahead to prepare investment procedures and draw up the prefeasibility study for the expressway project.

The Ministry of Transport had already completed a feasibility study for the project in 2010, but the project came to a standstill, causing frequent gridlock on National Highway 51 and hindering cargo transport to the Cai Mep-Thi Vai port complex.

Once in place, the expressway will help reduce traffic on the highway, which is the main artery linking Vung Tau, Dong Nai and HCMC and serves as a cargo gateway to the sea. The port complex is expected to raise its operating capacity, so traffic congestion will worsen. SGT

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