On July 25, Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee informed that the unit had just approved the investment policy for the Road Tunnel Project connecting National Highway 4D with Provincial Road 152 (Ham Rong Tunnel) in Sa Pa ward, with a total investment of 2,500 billion VND.
Sa Pa is a key tourist center of Lao Cai province and the northern mountainous region, welcoming millions of domestic and international visitors each year.
However, the rapid development of tourism in recent years has caused traffic infrastructure, especially in the old town center area, to often fall into a state of overload and congestion on weekends, holidays, and Tet.
In order to gradually remove infrastructure bottlenecks, the Ham Rong tunnel project will be implemented in the 2026-2029 period, invested by the Lao Cai Provincial Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board.
According to the plan, the tunnel line has a total length of about 1.4km, of which the tunnel section through Ham Rong mountain is about 1.2km long. The starting point of the project is located at the intersection of Ngu Chi Son road and Thach Son road, the ending point connects to the existing road in Truong Giang urban area.
The project is designed with two tunnel pipes, each pipe arranged with two lanes for motorized vehicles, forming four synchronous operating lanes. The two ends of the tunnel are invested with a system of four-lane access roads; the South is built with an additional bridge connecting to the existing road to ensure smooth traffic.
In addition to the main tunnel item, the project also synchronously invests in the operating center and technical items such as power supply, lighting, ventilation, drainage, fire prevention and fighting, traffic safety and operating works.
When completed, Ham Rong tunnel will create another strategic traffic axis, directly connecting National Highway 4D with Provincial Road 152, contributing to reducing traffic pressure through the central Sa Pa area, shortening travel time and improving connectivity capacity between urban development areas.
Previously, according to Lao Dong's records, on peak tourist days, the roads leading to Cat Cat, Ta Van, and Ta Phin villages in Sa Pa are always crowded, causing many people to be discouraged and have to turn back.
And in the center of Sa Pa town - a city built on the foundation of classical French architecture, roads serve rudimentary vehicles, motorbikes, small cars and pedestrians mainly, so when the number of visitors is too large, passenger transport services are always overloaded.
Leaders of Sa Pa ward said that on average, Sa Pa National Tourist Area welcomes over 4 million tourists each year. With the existing technical infrastructure system, during holidays and Tet, traffic jams often occur.
Therefore, the project to build a tunnel through Ham Rong mountain is expected to solve traffic bottlenecks through the urban center and promote socio-economic growth of the locality.
