Taking advantage of favorable weather in mid-November 2024, many machines, engineers and workers were mobilized by the contractor to speed up the construction progress of the Ring Road 2.5 - Giai Phong underpass project (Hoang Mai district, Hanoi).
The Ring Road 2.5 - Giai Phong underpass construction project started in October 2022 and is expected to be completed after 3 years with a scale of 4 lanes and a total investment of 778 billion VND.
After more than 2 years of construction, the project has now reached more than 50% of its volume. Of which, the Dam Hong underpass has basically completed the access road, open tunnel, and tunnel structure. Currently, the contractor is focusing on constructing the open tunnel and closed tunnel items on the Kim Dong side.
However, to clear the tunnel, it is necessary to remove the 35kV power line in the railway to be able to deploy the temporary bridge and rails to serve the work on the main structure of the tunnel. On the Dam Hong side, there is a house and 2 transformer stations.
The contractor is currently waiting for the investor, the Hanoi Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board, to hand over enough land to start construction simultaneously on the entire project. Progress is still being ensured to complete the project in 2025.
When completed, the underpass will help overcome traffic congestion between Ring Road 2.5 and Giai Phong Street, gradually completing the Ring Road 2.5 route according to the approved plan, ensuring smooth traffic through Giap Bat freight station.
However, the risk that the underpass will have to be "shelved" when completed and wait for a connecting road is still present, because the Ring Road 2.5 project (Dam Hong - National Highway 1 section) has been unfinished for many years, with no completion date set.
According to Lao Dong's research, the Beltway 2.5 project (Dam Hong - National Highway 1 section) is invested in the form of a BT (build - transfer) contract with a length of 2.06km, total investment of more than 1,300 billion VND.
The project started in 2014, but had to be temporarily suspended in 2020 due to difficulties in site clearance and the BT contract expiring. For many years, construction machinery had to be "shelved" waiting for the BT contract to be extended.
Actual records show that many items such as wastewater drainage, rainwater drainage, and roadbed have been completed or are under construction, including sections that have been constructed to the crushed stone layer and asphalt concrete pavement.
On the route, there is a bridge over the Lu River, 20 bored piles, all bridge piers and all beams have been cast. The items have been exposed to the sun and rain for many years, the iron and steel have rusted.
Many people around the project expressed concern that the Ring Road 2.5 - Giai Phong tunnel project will most likely "behind and ahead" if the Ring Road 2.5 (Dam Hong - National Highway 1 section) is not urgently completed.
"If the underpass is completed but has to be "shelved" waiting for the connecting road, it will cause a huge waste. I hope the government will soon resolve the problems and complete the construction of the Ring Road 2.5 project to connect with the underpass under construction" - said Mr. Nguyen Huy Bang (38 years old, Dinh Cong ward, Hoang Mai).
