Quang Nam voters have just proposed that the Ministry of Construction allocate resources to invest in upgrading and expanding National Highway 14H.
According to voters today, the road is degraded, the road surface is narrow, and dangerous for people and vehicles participating in traffic.
Voters also proposed expanding the section of National Highway 1A across Ba Ren Bridge to 4 lanes according to the plan, building a preliminary lane for rough vehicles from Duy Xuyen District to Phu Ninh District, Quang Nam Province to ensure traffic safety.
Responding to this issue, the Ministry of Construction said that regarding investment in upgrading and expanding National Highway 14H as follows:
According to the road network planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, National Highway 14H through Quang Nam province is 76 km long, level IV scale, 2 lanes.
The current status is basically level III - IV, 2 lanes, the section from Km 60 - Km 76 has the scale of a type A rural traffic road.
The Ministry of Construction agrees with the proposal of voters of Quang Nam province on the necessity of investing in and upgrading National Highway 14H through Quang Nam province to meet the transportation needs and economic development of Quang Nam province.
"However, due to difficulties in resources, the Ministry has not been able to allocate capital to invest in routes in the period of 2021 - 2025. The Ministry of Construction records the petitions of the voters and will coordinate with the People's Committee of Quang Nam Province to review and hand over the national highways to the provincial People's Committee for management and report to the competent authority to consider, invest in upgrading and expanding the route in the period 2026 - 2030."
Although there are not enough resources to expand National Highway 14H, to ensure traffic safety, the Ministry of Construction has assigned the Vietnam Road Administration to carry out regular maintenance and periodic repair work in 2022 to 2024 with a budget of about 69.2 billion VND.
The Ministry plans to continue allocating about 3.6 billion VND in 2025 for maintenance, repair, ensuring safe exploitation and facilitating people's travel.
Regarding investment in expanding National Highway 1A through Ba Ren Bridge; building a primitive traffic lane (Duy Xuyen to Phu Ninh section), the Ministry of Construction said:
According to the road network planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050, National Highway 1 from Hanoi to Can Tho meets level III standards, 4 lanes.
Since 2015, the Ministry of Transport has previously implemented investment, completed and put into operation National Highway 1 from Thanh Hoa to Can Tho, 1,475 km long with a scale of 4 lanes.
Of which, the 85 km section through Quang Nam province (Km942+000 - Km1027+000) has been invested with 56km with 4 lanes for motor vehicles, 2 lanes for mixed vehicles (200.5m wide roadbed, 19.5m wide road surface); 29km with 4 lanes for motor vehicles (17.5m wide roadbed, 16.5m wide road surface). The section across Ba Ren Bridge is kept intact because of the old Ba Ren Bridge with a scale of 2 lanes for parallel traffic.
To ensure traffic safety, the Ministry of Transport previously assigned the Vietnam Road Administration to study and establish an investment project to expand National Highway 1 from Duy Xuyen to Phu Ninh, Quang Nam province to plan investment in the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021 - 2025.
The Ministry also considered the investment plan to expand the 29 km long sections to the National Highway 1 expansion project, section Km947+000 - Km987+000 under the form of a BOT contract.
However, investing in the form of BOT contracts does not ensure feasibility in terms of financial plans, and is not in accordance with Resolution No. 437/NQ-UBTVQH14 dated October 1, 2017 of the National Assembly Standing Committee.
On the other hand, due to resource constraints, the Ministry has not been able to allocate capital to invest in expanding National Highway 1 from Duy Xuyen to Phu Ninh, Quang Nam province in the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021 - 2025.
The Ministry of Construction recorded the voters' recommendations. In order to ensure safety in the exploitation process, the Ministry of Construction assigned the Vietnam Road Administration to coordinate the locality to survey to have solutions to enhance safety for people and vehicles to participate in traffic on the route and in the process of developing public investment plans for the period of 2026 - 2030.
"Based on the ability to balance resources and the principles of capital allocation according to regulations, the Ministry of Construction will consider reporting to competent authorities to invest in expanding National Highway 1 from Duy Xuyen to Phu Ninh and Ba Ren Bridge according to the planning scale," said the Ministry of Construction.
