No sign of bridge construction yet
The Ring Road 4 project in the Capital Region has a total length of nearly 113km, passing through 3 provinces and cities, including Hanoi (58km), Hung Yen (19.3km), Bac Ninh (36.2km). The starting point of the project is at the Hanoi - Lao Cai expressway connection point, the end point is at the Noi Bai - Ha Long expressway connection point.
The project is implemented in 7 component projects, operating independently. Of which, Hanoi implements 3 component projects: Compensation, support, resettlement; Construction of parallel roads (urban roads) in Hanoi and investment in the construction of expressway systems under the PPP method. Ring Road 4 of the Capital region has 3 large bridges, including Me So bridge, Hong Ha bridge across the Red River and Hoai Thuong bridge across the Duong River.
Me So Bridge is about 600m downstream from Hong Van pumping station, Thuong Tin district (Hanoi). In Van Giang district (Hung Yen), the approach road to the bridge runs through Me So and Thang Loi communes and next to the 500kV power line. Once completed, Me So Bridge will open a new direction for vehicles from the center of Hanoi to Van Giang district and vice versa instead of going towards Thanh Tri bridge as before.
Hong Ha Bridge intersects with Hong Ha Street, the section passing through Gia Le Pagoda, located between Lien Hong Secondary School and Bong Lai village, in Lien Hong commune (Dan Phuong district) connecting with Van Khe commune (Me Linh district).
Located on the Ring Road 4 axis of the Capital region, there is also Hoai Thuong Bridge across the Duong River, Bac Ninh province.
The Hanoi People's Committee said that it will strive to complete site clearance and handover before December 31, 2024; in some difficult cases, it will be completed before the Lunar New Year. The city also strives to complete the parallel project in the fourth quarter of 2025.
However, according to Lao Dong, there are still more than 100 households in Khe Ngoai 2 village, Van Khe commune, Me Linh, located within the construction boundary of Hong Ha bridge, whose land has not been cleared. Similarly, in Dan Phuong, many households subject to land clearance for the construction of Hong Ha bridge have not been relocated.
Meanwhile, the Me So bridge on Thuong Tin side (Hanoi) has been cleared, while the Van Giang side (Hung Yen) has not been cleared and there is currently no sign of construction of the Me So bridge in this area. This makes many people worried that the parallel road will be completed but they will have to "wait for the bridge".
Speaking with Lao Dong, a representative of a contractor constructing a parallel road to the Ring Road 4 project said: In the case that the parallel road is completed but the bridge is not completed and traffic is not open, it will not bring benefits to the people as well as economic efficiency.
Traffic must be smooth.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Hong Thai - Head of the Faculty of Transport and Economics (University of Transport) said that in the transport infrastructure, the ring road is extremely important, preventing vehicles from running through the city center.
“The purpose of parallel roads is to serve the highway, not the highway to serve parallel roads. So if there are only parallel roads, the service will not be effective,” Associate Professor Nguyen Hong Thai emphasized.
According to Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Duong Duc Tuan, this project is planned to be completed in 2026 and put into operation in 2027. Up to now, the progress of implementing Component Project 1.1 - Compensation, support, site clearance and Component Project 2.1 - Construction of parallel roads has basically met the requirements.
However, the biggest difficulty now is implementing Component Project 3 - Investing in the construction of expressways under the public-private partnership (PPP) method to ensure progress and disbursement of the central capital allocated for the project in 2024 of VND 4,190 billion.
Currently, the parallel road component projects (Component Project Group 2) are being accelerated to ensure completion by the end of 2025 as directed by the Prime Minister.
Thus, when the parallel road system is expected to be completed in 2025, it still cannot connect the entire route because major bridges such as Hong Ha Bridge, Me So Bridge (over the Red River), Hoai Thuong Bridge (over the Duong River) belonging to the public investment sub-project in Component Project 3 have not been completed, reducing investment efficiency.
In that situation, the Hanoi People's Committee respectfully requests the Prime Minister to propose to the National Assembly to allow the implementation of the Public Investment Sub-project in Component Project 3 as a normal public investment project and to be implemented independently, in parallel and not depending on the progress and results of selecting investors to implement the remaining part of Component Project 3.
