On the morning of February 10, the Ring Road 2.5 project, Dam Hong - National Highway 1A section, officially opened to technical traffic after 12 years from the time of commencement. The project has a length of 1.6km, invested in the form of a BT (build - transfer) contract, with a total investment of about 1,317 billion VND.
The road being put into operation ends the long and arduous journey of a project that had to be temporarily suspended for a long time.
For people living along the route, this is not just a simple traffic event but also a moment to close a period of more than a decade of suffering many impacts in daily life, travel and business.
The Ring Road 2.5 project, Dam Hong - National Highway 1A section, was started in 2014, expected to be completed in 2017. However, the project progress was delayed due to problems in site clearance and waiting for BT contract extension.
By 2020, when only about 40% of the workload was completed, the project had to be temporarily suspended.
It will not be until the end of May 2025 that the project will be restarted and basically completed to technically open to traffic on the morning of February 10.
Living in Dinh Cong ward, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan said that for many years, her family and hundreds of households in the area have had to adapt to the unfinished construction situation.
There are times when the project is under construction and then stopped, construction materials are left scattered. When it's sunny, dust flies everywhere, when it rains, mud and soil are slippery. People here hope the roads are as clear as dry weather waiting for rain," Ms. Lan shared.
Prolonged construction not only causes difficulties in traffic but also affects the living environment. Many households have to close their doors all day to avoid dust.
On the morning of February 10, when the road was officially technically opened to traffic, Ms. Lan and some people stood on both sides of the road to watch and record images of the first cars traveling through the new route.
After so many years of waiting, now looking at such a wide and spacious road, we people are all happy," Ms. Lan said.
Not only residents, but also some business households along the route expressed excitement. The case of Mr. Tran Van Hung is a typical example.
As the owner of a construction material store near the Dam Hong area, Mr. Hung said that the prolonged project had caused a significant decline in trading activities.
There was a period when the project was temporarily suspended for many years, customers were reluctant to enter because the road was bad and dusty. Revenue decreased significantly. We only hope the project will be completed completely" - Mr. Hung said.
After 12 years since the groundbreaking ceremony, the road has finally reached the finish line. For Mr. Hung, this is not just a traffic project, but a relief of pressure, the aspiration of many households for more than a decade.
People all expect that when infrastructure improves, business will flourish" - the 55-year-old man said.
Also on February 10, the underpass at the Ring Road 2.5 - Giai Phong intersection was officially technically opened to traffic after more than 3 years of construction.
The commissioning of the underpass and Ring Road 2.5 contributes to creating a clear shift for traffic infrastructure in the southern Hanoi area.
Connection axes are more smooth, vehicle traffic is redistributed, thereby significantly reducing the load on many inner-city roads that are often overloaded.
For the people, the completion of the two projects not only has the meaning of improving daily travel conditions but also creates motivation to promote urban development.
More spacious infrastructure is expected to attract more investment resources, increase real estate value and gradually improve the quality of life in the area.
