The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just assigned the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board to prepare a pre-feasibility study report to adjust the project to renovate, upgrade and expand Nguyen Thi Dinh Street (from My Thuy intersection to Cat Lai ferry).
The road is only about 1.6 km long but every day "carries" more than 20,000 cars in and out of Cat Lai port, mostly container trucks. This is also the route connecting Cat Lai ferry, every day thousands of cars and motorbikes travel from Nhon Trach.
Meanwhile, the existing road surface is only 4 - 6 lanes, often overloaded and seriously congested.
The project to expand this route was originally established by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport (now the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction) in 2016 with a total investment of more than 1,000 billion VND and was approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council in 2017. However, after 7 years, the project has not been implemented.
In that context, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai have agreed to deploy the construction of Cat Lai Bridge with a total length of 11.6 km (3 km long main bridge), including 6 lanes for motor vehicles and 2 lanes for rudimentary vehicles, with a design speed of 80 km/h.
Cat Lai Bridge connects from Nguyen Thi Dinh Street (Cat Lai Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) to Dai Phuoc Commune (Nhon Trach District, Dong Nai), with a total preliminary investment of more than VND 20,500 billion under the form of public-private partnership (PPP). The project is expected to start construction at the end of 2025 and be completed in 2028.
The Cat Lai bridge project is divided into 3 component projects. Of which, Component Project 1 (building the bridge and road leading to the Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway is about VND 12,564 billion) and Component Project 2 (clearing the land on the Dong Nai side is about VND 2,985 billion) are implemented by the People's Committee of Dong Nai province.
Component project 3 (land clearance and expansion of Nguyen Thi Dinh Street) has a total capital of about VND4,975 billion guaranteed by Ho Chi Minh City.
The Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has recently issued a document requesting the Compensation and Site Clearance Board of Thu Duc City to implement compensation, support, and resettlement for the Nguyen Thi Dinh Street expansion project. The site clearance work is expected to be completed in 2026.
According to the Traffic Construction Project Management Board, Nguyen Thi Dinh route is expected to be expanded to 60 m, accommodating 10 - 12 lanes, in sync with the planning and connectivity when Cat Lai bridge is formed. The project is expected to start construction in 2026 and be completed in 2027.
When completed, along with the My Thuy intersection expected to be completely completed in 2026, the area will be "untied" of traffic congestion, increase the capacity of Cat Lai port and create an important connecting axis between Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai.
