The Tram 2 Interchange on Hanoi Highway is designed with modern multi-levels, including a flyover with four circles of 420 m diameter and road branches with a total area of 27 hectares.
This is the intersection between Hanoi Highway and National Highway 1A, located at the eastern gateway of Ho Chi Minh City, connecting with Binh Duong, Dong Nai and the Southeast and Central Highlands regions.
However, with the large traffic volume, this area often experiences congestion. To reduce the load, in 2016, two underpasses at the intersection were started, part of the Hanoi Highway expansion project invested by Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company (CII) under the BOT (build - operate - transfer) model.
The two underpasses are designed as open-top tunnels, built on the parallel section of Hanoi Highway. When completed, the tunnels will form a multi-level traffic intersection, contributing to reducing traffic conflicts.
According to the original plan, both tunnels would be completed and put into operation from 2018. However, the progress has been continuously delayed.
By June 2023, the left parallel underpass (from Dong Nai to Ho Chi Minh City) longer than 1km will be completed and put into use.
On the contrary, the parallel tunnel on the right (from Ho Chi Minh City to Dong Nai) 980 m long is still not completed.
Although the 4 closed tunnel sections and the access road on the High-Tech Park side have been completed, the 300-meter long section on the Suoi Tien side has not yet been cleared, causing the project to be suspended from mid-2023.
Recorded at the construction site on November 26, the underpass was barricaded right before the Station 2 overpass. Cars were driving on the inside of Hanoi Highway, while motorbikes had to go quite a long way around the Station 2 intersection.
Construction materials are gathered right under the underpass. Due to the long-term construction stoppage, weeds and trees have grown wild, and many sections are abandoned.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam - Deputy Director of Hanoi Highway and National Highway 1 Construction Investment Joint Stock Company (under CII Company), the unfinished section still has nearly 30 households in Tan Phu Ward, Thu Duc City. If the site is handed over, the contractor can complete the remaining section within 4 months.
A representative of the Compensation and Site Clearance Board of Thu Duc City said that the government is urgently resolving the problem. "Many households have requested to increase the compensation price and adjust the planning ratio to 1,500 so that they can build new houses. We are speeding up the resolution to hand over the site as soon as possible," he said.
The Hanoi Highway expansion project started on April 2, 2010, under a BOT contract between CII Company and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
The entire 15.7 km long Hanoi Highway has been expanded to 12 - 16 lanes, divided into 3 sections: Section 1 from Saigon Bridge to Binh Thai Intersection is 6.2 km long (153 m wide); Section 2 from Binh Thai to Tram 2 Intersection is 5.3 km long (113 m wide) and Section 3 from Tram 2 Intersection to Tan Van Intersection is 4.2 km long (11 m wide).
Currently, the section from Saigon Bridge to National University has completed the entire main axis and basically finished the parallel road.
However, the section from Tram 2 intersection to Tan Van has only reached 80% progress, in which the parallel underpass on the right and the nearly 2 km section from Tan Van intersection to Mien Dong bus station are still stalled due to land clearance problems.
BOT Hanoi Highway collected fees from the beginning of April 2021 to pay back the project to expand this route.
