Voters in Lao Cai province reflected that the Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway was built and put into use more than 10 years ago.
The road surface has been damaged in some places; especially the section in Lao Cai province with only 2 lanes, without a hard median strip, posing many potential risks of insecurity and speed limitations.
Voters requested that investment, repair, and upgrading of road surfaces be directed soon, the road surface be expanded to 4 lanes and there will be a hard median strip along the entire route; at the same time, capital be arranged soon, and investment in the IC15 intersection be implemented to connect trade, promote socio-economic development of localities.
After studying, the Ministry of Construction responded as follows:
The 245 km long Noi Bai - Lao Cai Expressway has been put into operation since 2014 by the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) for investment, management, exploitation and maintenance.
Of which, the Noi Bai - Yen Bai section has a scale of 4 lanes; the Yen Bai - Lao Cai section has a scale of 2 lanes. During the exploitation process, some sections of the route have appeared to have partial damage to the road surface.
The Ministry of Construction has directed the Vietnam Road Administration to regularly coordinate with VEC to carry out inspection and repair work, ensuring traffic safety, meeting the travel needs of the people.
Because the Noi Bai - Lao Cai route is a concentrated expressway, exploited for more than 10 years, the Yen Bai - Lao Cai section is being exploited with a scale of 2 lanes, without a median strip, limiting traffic capacity, when the number of vehicles increases, it will potentially endanger the safety of traffic for people and vehicles traveling on the route, especially on weekends, holidays and Tet.
Based on VEC's report and the participation of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Construction issued Document No. 2510/BXDKHTC dated April 17, 2025 reporting to the Prime Minister on the investment plan for the Yen Bai - Lao Cai expansion project of the Noi Bai - Lao Cai Expressway (Project).
In document No. 624/TTg-CN dated May 30, 2025, the Prime Minister agreed to assign VEC as the managing agency to implement the project investment.
Up to now, the VEC Board of Members has approved the investment policy in Decision No. 588/QD-VEC-HDTV dated June 2, 2025; VEC approved the investment project in Decision No. 889/QD-VEC dated August 8, 2025 to invest in expanding 121.33 km from a scale of 2 lanes to 4 lanes, with a hard median strip on the entire route and has an investment item at the IC15 intersection as proposed by voters of Lao Cai province.
The project has a total investment of VND 7,667.84 billion; the implementation period is from 2025 - 2027, however, VEC is striving to complete it in 2026.
