On June 26, the project to renovate and upgrade National Highway 14D was officially started in Ben Giang commune, Da Nang city. With a total investment of more than 4,518 billion VND, the 65km long road connecting from Ho Chi Minh Road to the Nam Giang International Border Gate area is expected to remove traffic bottlenecks that have haunted mountainous people for many years.
For thousands of households in the western mountainous area of Da Nang, the groundbreaking ceremony is not just an infrastructure event. It is the joy after a long time of living in difficult travel, hard transporting agricultural products, students going to school in dust, and patients going to the emergency room having to overcome degraded roads, full of uncertainties.
Every day, many heavy trucks carrying goods, materials, and agricultural products pass through densely. Meanwhile, the road surface in many sections is heavily damaged, with potholes and craters. In the sunny season, dust covers trees and houses along the road. In the rainy season, many sections are muddy and slippery, posing a risk of accidents.
Driver Vu Trong Phung, who regularly travels on National Highway 14D, said that what worries him the most is the scene of highland children going to school in the dusty stream of trucks: "Students walking and riding bicycles have to squeeze into the stream of trucks, dust, potholes, and craters. Looking at it, I can only feel heart-stopping.
Not only students, patients also suffer many risks when needing emergency care. Ms. Alăng Tro, Nam Giang commune, said that relatives giving birth have to ride motorbikes through bumpy roads and dense potholes; reaching the hospital is already exhausting. For people in mountainous areas, a bad road route not only slows down the journey, but can also directly affect health, even life.
For a long time, people have been traveling very hard. Carrying agricultural products is crushed, taking children to school is scary, taking sick people to the hospital is terrifying. Now hearing the news of the project starting, people are very happy, just hoping the project will be completed soon" - Mr. Bh’riu Po, a resident of Ben Giang commune, longed.
The biggest nightmare for people along the route is the rainy and flood season. During the historic flood at the end of 2025, many road sections to the border area were seriously landslides. Soil and rocks from the positive slope spilled onto the road surface, traffic was paralyzed, and many residential areas fell into complete isolation.
When trucks carrying food could not enter the village, A Vuong commune had to mobilize rice and necessities from business households in the area to support people. In Tay Giang, the locality had to temporarily take rice reserves at boarding schools to rescue people who were cut off. That detail shows that, for the border area, National Highway 14D is not simply a traffic route but a lifeline in natural disasters.
For people in border areas, the new road not only helps travel more conveniently but also ensures safety, livelihoods and flood response capabilities. Roads are cleared, agricultural products have more opportunities to go to the market; children going to school are less dangerous; patients can access medical facilities faster; relief goods are also easier to reach villages when natural disasters occur.
According to the design, National Highway 14D will be upgraded according to the standards of level III and level IV mountainous roads, synchronously investing in road surfaces, bridges, culverts, traffic safety systems and lighting. On the entire route, 26 new bridges will be built, including 8 bridges to replace old and degraded bridges and 18 bridges on route sections adjusted in direction.
According to Vice Chairman of Da Nang City People's Committee Tran Chi Cuong, National Highway 14D is the only route connecting Da Nang center with Nam Giang International Border Gate, the gateway for trade with South Laos and Northeast Thailand. In the development strategy, this is an important connecting axis on the East-West economic corridor, associated with the goal of making Da Nang a logistics, seaport service and international trade center of the Central region.
National Highway 14D after upgrading not only opens the way for trade through border gates but also opens more development opportunities, helping the western mountainous region to be less isolated, reduce the risk of isolation during the rainy and flood season and create a foundation for thousands of border households to stabilize long-term livelihoods - Da Nang leaders expect.
In 2025, through Nam Giang International Border Gate, there were more than 121,000 people completing entry and exit procedures and more than 94,000 vehicles importing and exporting goods. However, due to the degradation of National Highway 14D, transporting goods from the border gate to receiving points in Da Nang usually takes 10-12 hours. Logistics costs increase, customs clearance capacity is limited, while the border trade potential has not been exploited commensurately.
