The Ring Road 4 project has a total length of about 207 km, passing through 5 localities before the merger including Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An. After the merger, the route now passes through Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh.
The section of more than 47 km passing through the old Binh Duong province has been under construction since June 2025. The remaining sections are about 160 km long, passing through Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh, with a total investment of more than VND 120,400 billion, and have just been approved by the National Assembly for investment.
Localities are urgently completing procedures to start construction in 2026, with the goal of completing the entire route before 2030.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 will be cleared according to the planning scale of 8 lanes, but in phase 1, only 4 lanes will be invested to optimize costs and suit immediate mining needs.
The project has 17 intersections, connecting with major traffic axes such as highways, national highways, provincial roads and urban main roads. Some intersections are close (3 - 4 km) apart, helping to increase connectivity, improve exploitation efficiency and increase financial attractiveness for the entire route.
Typical locations include: DT.769E intersection (connecting Long Thanh airport) only 3 km from the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh expressway intersection; DH.744 intersection is about 4.1 km from the Provincial Road 15 intersection; National Highway 22 intersection is 4.7 km from the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai expressway intersection...
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the Ring Road 4 project has been studied according to the plan to build overpasses (elevated roads) along the route to shorten progress and reduce impact on residential areas.
This option has many advantages such as: no need to treat weak soil, less use of sand for embankment, limit community division, reduce the impact on local traffic and reduce the need for access roads.
However, the biggest disadvantage is the high investment cost, about 2 times higher than the plan to build a roadbed. Therefore, to ensure financial efficiency and attract investors, the overpass option is only applied in specific sections such as areas with weak geology, urban areas, industrial parks with high intersection density and high demand for connecting the two sides.
In addition, the first phase has not yet built parallel roads but only arranged service roads or side roads at sections through residential areas and urban areas to serve the needs of people.
These routes are not continuous, small in scale, low speed of operation, only supporting vehicle collection at intersections, not competing with highways. It is expected that after 10 - 15 years, localities will complete investment in the parallel road.
A noteworthy point is that Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 4 will not be closed in a circular shape but will only form a route in the shape of the letter "C". The route starts at Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway and ends at Hiep Phuoc Port (HCMC).
The remaining section to close the belt, passing through Can Gio protective forest - a world biosphere reserve recognized by UNESCO, is not currently planned due to strict requirements on environmental protection.
In addition, this area has complex terrain and geology, deep weak soil, having to cross many large rivers such as Soai Rap, Long Tau, Thi Vai with high clearance requirements, leading to huge investment costs. Can Gio area also has low population density, low transportation demand, and is oriented to develop eco-tourism, so it is not necessary to invest in this section.
Instead, the closed traffic of the entire route can be indirectly implemented through connections with existing expressways such as Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong, Ben Luc - Long Thanh and Bien Hoa - Vung Tau.
