Shortage of 5.8 million cubic meters of sand
Currently, contractors are exploiting 2/5 river sand mines (Soc Trang province) under special mechanisms to construct the Component 4 project of Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway.
For sand mine MS03 in Nhon My commune, Ke Sach district (Soc Trang province), Construction Corporation No. 1 - JSC is exploiting to serve package No. 12 of Component Project 4. The sand mine has an area of about 53.9 hectares, the permitted exploitation reserve is 466,268m3, exploited for 7 months (about 2,695m3/day). Currently, the unit is exploiting with an output of about 1,200m3/day, reaching 40% of the licensed capacity per day.
The MS01 sand mine in Phong Nam and An Lac Tay communes (Ke Sach district) has a licensed mining reserve of 1.18 million m3 (exploited until 2028), with a maximum mining capacity of 1,093 m3/day. The contractor has arranged enough ships to transport all the sand mined from the mine to the construction site with a capacity of 1,600 m3/day.
Sand mine MS05 has started exploitation, however the reserves are very small so the contractor has proposed to exploit sea sand.
According to Project Management Board 2 (Soc Trang province) - the investor of Component Project 4, the sand demand of the Project is about 6.6 million m3, equivalent to an average of 22,000 m3 of sand per day to fill the completed load until the end of June 2025 to ensure basic completion in 2026 according to Resolution 60 of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, 2 mines (MS01, MS03) supply sand to the Project with a maximum volume of 0.761 million m3/6.6 million m3 by June 2025 (short of 5.8 million m3). The total maximum exploitation capacity of the mines (according to the exploitation license) has only reached 3,795 m3/22,000 m3/day (short of capacity of 18,205 m3/day).
Recommendations for using sea sand
Faced with the difficulty of sand resources, the investor of Component 4 proposed that the departments, branches and the People's Committee of Soc Trang province consider allowing the use of saline sand (processed to reduce salinity) on the entire route (section through Soc Trang province). At the same time, speed up the procedures for transferring saline sand from mines B1.1 and B1.2 to Component 4. Speed up the licensing process for the sea sand mine from mine B1.3 to the Contractor Construction Corporation No. 1 in early September 2024.
The Project Investor also recommended that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Soc Trang province study and advise on increasing the mining capacity of MS01 mine from 1,093m3/day to 4,400m3/day, ensuring the supply of the entire volume of 1.18 million m3 of this mine to the Project by June 2025. In case the sand mines in the province do not provide enough 6.6 million m3 of sand for the Project before June 30, 2025, there must be a plan and solution to supply appropriate materials to ensure progress.
During a survey of sand exploitation on September 23, Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province Tran Van Lau requested that exploitation units need to increase the number of suction and transport vessels and must have registration, inspection, and full monitoring equipment to contribute to ensuring sand exploitation in accordance with the granted reserves, and promptly bring sand to the expressway project to speed up progress.
