A decade behind schedule
The Phong Dien - Dien Loc rescue road project worth over 700 billion VND was approved in 2010 by the Management Board of Traffic Construction Investment Projects of Thua Thien - Hue Province (now Hue City) as the investor. In 2012, the project started and is still under slow construction.
The project has a total length of more than 16.2km, starting at the intersection with National Highway 1A in Phong Dien and ending at Dien Loc beach (Phong Dien town). According to the plan, the project should have been completed 3 years after the start of construction. However, by mid-January 2025 (10 years later), the project is still unfinished.
The reason for the delay was determined to be that this project was on the list of projects allocated capital from the Central Program for Construction of Rescue and Relief Roads.However, after the Government tightened public investment, this project had to be temporarily suspended.
In January 2024, the People's Council of Thua Thien - Hue Province (now the People's Council of Hue City) adjusted and added more than 100 billion VND to the project.By August 2024, the project was open to one-way traffic and was expected to be completed by the end of 2024, but to date, many items have not been completed.
Risk of insecurity
According to Lao Dong Newspaper reporters on January 7 and 13, 2025, the Phong Dien - Dien Loc rescue road project is still a mess of concrete, steel, and mud. On January 7, 2025, there were less than 10 workers working at the construction site. By January 13, 2025, there were only about 3 workers working on both sides of the road; construction equipment and machinery are "covered".
Notably, at the drainage and electric pits, workers are working, but there are no adequate warning barriers. A series of drainage and deep pits are not carefully covered. More importantly, this is the entrance and exit to Phong Dien Industrial Park for many workers and laborers, and the deep pits are not properly managed and fenced, causing traffic safety problems.
Mr. Nguyen Tuan (a resident who often travels through the above road) said that there are construction sites with deep holes, the construction unit has not carefully fenced them off, posing a potential safety risk.
The Hue City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board (Board) said that regarding the project's progress, the Board has repeatedly inspected the field, urging the construction unit to ensure safety and synchronous construction to ensure progress by the third quarter of 2025 to complete the project as planned.
The Board said that the project's progress is currently affected by many factors, including site clearance and especially difficulties in funding. According to the Board, in 2025, the project will be allocated an additional VND25 billion. The project currently lacks about VND90 billion in capital.
"Currently, we are partly closely monitoring the contractor's construction to urge, in parallel with recommending the Hue City People's Committee to continue to allocate capital to complete the construction, bringing the project to the finish line according to the extended schedule in 2025" - the Board's leader said.
