New Red River Bridge creates new momentum
In recent articles, Lao Dong Newspaper has pointed out the "alarming" situation when many bridges over the Red River are often overloaded, with traffic volume many times higher than designed.
Of the six bridges spanning the Red River in Hanoi's inner city districts, the latest statistics from the Hanoi Department of Transport show that some bridges have traffic volumes many times higher than their original design.
A typical example is Chuong Duong bridge connecting Hoan Kiem and Long Bien districts, completed in 1985. Every day, the bridge receives nearly 100,000 vehicles passing through, 8 times more than the design.
Thanh Tri Bridge is also carrying more than 121,000 vehicles per day and night, many times more than its design capacity, and this is the reason why Ring Road 3 through Thanh Tri Bridge often records overload and prolonged congestion.
Regarding this issue, speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Thai - Head of the Faculty of Transport and Economics, University of Transport - also stated that the bridges across the Red River are facing a very serious traffic jam.
"To meet the development needs of Hanoi in the future, the construction of a new bridge system is extremely necessary and urgent.
The new bridges will create a lot of momentum, connecting special areas such as Dong Anh, Gia Lam... to the core urban area. And that is also an opportunity for people to move out of the core area, reducing pressure in the current urban area" - Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Hong Thai said.
In fact, to meet the development needs of Hanoi's inner city on both sides of the Red River, the Transport Planning to 2030, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister, also determined that Hanoi will build 10 more bridges across the Red River, to both meet the traffic needs of the capital as well as connect inter-regional traffic.
Choose a feasible and suitable investment method
Among the new bridge projects, according to Lao Dong reporters, the Tu Lien bridge project (connecting Tay Ho and Dong Anh districts) and the Tran Hung Dao bridge project (connecting Hoan Kiem and Long Bien districts) are considered two urgent projects to help solve the traffic congestion on bridges across the Red River in the inner city.
However, the latest updates are still unclear about the start date of the two bridge projects mentioned above.
The issue that people and public opinion are particularly interested in at the present time is how Hanoi will choose the investment method for the Tu Lien and Tran Hung Dao bridge projects, when there is a lot of information about these bridge projects being transferred from the PPP (public-private partnership) method to public investment.
There are many concerns that choosing the public investment method will prolong project implementation time and bridge projects may not be completed soon.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Thai said that there are many forms of investment in infrastructure development. Using the form of public investment is using budget capital. If following this form, it must comply with the Law on Public Investment. In addition, there is also the form of attracting private resources to participate in infrastructure development.
"However, in reality, public investment must comply with a very strict process, procedure, and plan. That will also lead to problems with progress, and implementation will be prolonged. We see many public investment activities shifting to public-private partnerships, and vice versa. Therefore, when implementing, we must also consider the feasibility of attracting resources" - Head of the Faculty of Transport - Economics, University of Transport expressed his opinion.
Mr. Thai also commented that, in attracting private resources, some cases of using the form of build-transfer contracts require a special mechanism but should be considered because "perhaps in terms of progress, it is the fastest and meets the time requirements, the project can be put into implementation soon".
