The only source of sand is gone.
Mr. Dang Hoang Vinh - Project Management Director, Expressway Management Board (under the Can Tho City Construction Investment Project Management Board) - investor of component project 2 - said that the project has 4 main construction packages, up to now, reaching a rate of nearly 19%. Regarding the sand filling material for the project, it needs 7 million m3, the sand source provided from the mine of An Giang province has just arrived at the construction site with more than 1 million m3 and Tien Giang province is completing the procedures.
Mr. Dang Hoang Vinh added that Tien Giang province has committed to supporting the total reserves of 3 sand mines of about 4.755 million m3, after surveying, it met nearly 3 million m3. However, to date, it has not been granted a confirmation for exploitation.
The investor of component project 2 also hopes that in December 2024, the People's Committee of Tien Giang province will have a confirmation to exploit sand to speed up the project's progress.
Regarding the supply of sand for component 2 project, Mr. Nguyen Van Kiet - Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tien Giang province said that the province is in the process of preparing documents to license sand mines. Regarding the price of sand supplied for the expressway project, the Provincial People's Committee has recently issued a policy directing the Department of Finance to work with enterprises that are entitled to exploit sand to exchange information on sand prices.
Reporting to the People's Council of Hau Giang province on the implementation of component project 3, the People's Committee of Hau Giang province said that as of the end of November, the project was about 10% behind schedule.
Regarding sand material sources, the Component 3 project was licensed by the An Giang Provincial People's Committee to exploit a sand mine with a reserve of about 2.6 million m3, with an exploitation capacity of 3,750 m3/day. However, since September 2024, this sand mine has been transferred to the Can Tho - Ca Mau expressway project for exploitation until the end of 2024. Therefore, the only source of sand for the project is no longer available, directly affecting the construction progress.
The report also stated that due to the scarcity of materials, sand must be taken from mines according to a special mechanism. If taken from commercial mines at high prices, the contractor will find it difficult to handle because the quantity is too large (with a volume of about 6 million m3 and a price difference of about 120,000 VND/m3, the cost will increase to about 720 billion VND, accounting for about 13% of the contract value).
Faced with difficulties, the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee of Hau Giang province have worked with leaders of Soc Trang and Ben Tre provinces to request support for sand resources. However, the sand mine in Soc Trang province contains a lot of mud and cannot be exploited. The sand mine in Ben Tre province, due to being stuck in the provincial planning, must undergo adjustment procedures and is expected to be exploited by the end of December 2024.
Research on using sea sand for roadbed construction
The report of the Ministry of Transport shows that the cumulative construction output of the entire Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang project has reached about 22.16% of the contract value. The assessment of the project's progress has not met the requirements compared to the plan, the main reason for the delay is the shortage of sand in the first phase, therefore, the Ministry of Transport recommends that investors need to direct more strongly to have a plan to carry out appropriate works while waiting for sand materials (such as speeding up the construction of bridges, structures, etc.).
To resolve difficulties for the project, in addition to river sand, the Ministry of Transport requested localities to direct investors of component projects to study the use of sea sand for roadbed construction to meet construction progress and compensate for the shortage of capacity.
Local authorities direct competent authorities and investors of component projects to strictly control material prices, especially sand (exploited under special mechanisms or purchased commercially), to prevent speculation, price increases, and policy exploitation, causing loss and waste.
In order to meet the requirement of completing the project in 2026 as requested by the National Assembly and the Government, the Ministry of Transport requests localities to review and promptly adjust the implementation progress of each project and each bid package to compensate for the delay; in which, it is important to specifically determine the control time points, especially the construction of the roadbed and works on the route must be completed before April 2026.
The Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang Expressway Project Phase 1 has a total length of more than 188km. Of which, component project 1 in An Giang province is 57.2km long; component project 2 in Can Tho city is 37.2km long; component project 3 in Hau Giang province is nearly 37km long and component project 4 in Soc Trang province is 56.9km long. The total investment is about 44,700 billion VND.
