Suffering on new sidewalks
In 2024, the Department of Transport of Da Nang City (now the Department of Construction of Da Nang City) has piloted the paving of sidewalks with new structures on a number of roads and areas such as: Pham Van Dong Street sidewalk, sidewalk of the City Women's Union area, villa No. 1 Pasteur and is implementing sidewalk construction on Le Thanh Nghi Street...
The curbs are newly designed with sleepers, assembled concrete with a anti-slip grille layer; the surface layer is high-intensity concrete. The sidewalk is paved with high-intensity self-concrete concrete, flat surface, good drainage and anti-slip. After being paved, the bricks are rolled with tabletop machines to self- press and create a stable, flat sidewalk surface.
However, currently along the central streets of Da Nang such as Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Le Thanh Nghi, Nguyen Hoang, or Pasteur, it is not difficult to see the image of new, sophisticated but bumpy, unfinished sidewalks. Many sidewalks have turned into "traps", stagnant water has turned into puddles after each rain, and even weeds have managed to grow through the bricks. As a business household on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street, Mr. Le Van Huu was upset: "It's only been a rainy season but it's been this rough," said Mr. Huu.
Admitting mistakes
Mr. Nguyen Ha Nam, Director of the Department of Construction of Da Nang, frankly admitted that the situation of newly paved sidewalks being sunk and crooked on some streets is real. The 59 streets selected for the new sidewalk pilot are all important roads with high population density and vibrant business activities, with the expectation of creating synchronous infrastructure.
Explaining the new technology, Mr. Nam said that the city is switching to applying a structure using self-immolating concrete bricks, replacing the previous method of ceramic brick patching on concrete. Self-propelled bricks have three major advantages: good drainage, higher load-bearing and especially easy to disassemble to repair underground infrastructure without demolition.
However, the Director of the Department of Construction also pointed out two main reasons for rapid degradation.
"First is the land. If the embankment does not meet the standard thickness, when heavy rain, water will seep in, causing the soil to continue to sink, causing the bricks to "losen" and shift. Second, and also the main reason, lies in construction techniques. If workers do not insert the bricks carefully with fine sand, do not use a saw to shake enough force to make the bricks self-lock together, then just a small gap is enough to cause the entire brick to move," Mr. Nam analyzed. He affirmed that the main responsibility lies in the management of quality during the construction process of project management boards, supervision units and contractors. In the near future, the Department of Construction will request tightening the entire process, ensuring full compliance with technical steps. At the same time, the city will review all deployed routes, check the current status of each location and organize to completely repair damaged sections.
