On December 15, the Dong Ha Ward Construction Investment Project Management Board confirmed that after 14 years of implementation, the extended Nguyen Trai route has been officially opened to traffic, and people can travel smoothly.
Recorded at the intersection between Nguyen Trai Street extension and National Highway 9, the biggest bottleneck of the project was previously cleared and the connection was completed. Vehicles pass smoothly, ending the long-standing road in disarray.
According to the records, the section of Nguyen Trai Street extended from National Highway 9 to Tran Binh Trong Street, planned since June 1999. However, it was not until early 2011 that the People's Committee of Quang Tri province approved the technical economic report, with a total investment of more than 7.6 billion VND from the central budget. The project was then only able to implement a few items and then fell into a state of stagnation since 2013 due to lack of capital allocation.
The "suspended" situation has lasted for many years, greatly affecting the lives of people in the area. Lao Dong Newspaper has previously reported many times the project's delay, unfinished land, dusty and risk of traffic insecurity, causing public outrage.
At the end of 2020, the project was restarted when the People's Committee of Dong Ha City (old) approved a new feasibility study report and adjusted the investment scale. The total investment at that time was increased to 24 billion VND, the total length of the route was 472.43m, the investor was the Dong Ha City Construction Investment Project Management Board.
Not stopping there, until April 2022, the project continued to be adjusted with the reason of recalculating the cost of site clearance to get closer to reality. This adjustment has pushed the total investment to 44 billion VND, an increase of nearly 6 times compared to the original figure. The construction process was still interrupted after that, and at times had to stop, such as in June 2023, making local people even more frustrated.
Although the route is basically completed by May 2025, there are still about 20m of the route that cannot be constructed due to procedures to connect with National Highway 9.
According to Mr. Thai Vinh Hai, Director of the Dong Ha Ward Construction Investment Project Management Board, the reason for the delay in connecting is due to the change of the authority to manage National Highway 9, from the Central agency to the People's Committee of Quang Tri province, while the handover procedures have not been completed, leading to legal gaps in allowing connections.
The fact that a nearly 500m long road section takes 14 years to construct, with an increase of 44 billion VND to be put into use shows many problems in planning, capital allocation, project adjustment and coordination between management agencies. This is an valuable lesson in the effectiveness of public investment, which needs to be taken seriously to avoid repeating long-term projects, causing waste and undermining people's confidence.
