Located creeping between bustling residential areas and a series of apartment buildings in the South of Ho Chi Minh City, Le Van Luong street plays the role of a vital traffic axis connecting the city with Tay Ninh province. However, the road of more than 10 km stretching from Nguyen Van Linh Avenue to adjacent to DT826C road (Can Giuoc commune) is currently only about 6 m wide with two opposite lanes.
Due to infrastructure not being expanded commensurate with urban development, this route often falls into serious traffic jams during peak hours, and at the same time becomes a nightmare for people every time high tides cause flooding.
Witnessing Long Kieng bridge and Rach Dia bridge being spacious when opened to traffic, people here are very excited but also hope that Le Van Luong street will be widened accordingly soon. Only when the road is wide and the bridge is new will the scene of traffic jams and flooding really end," Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan (a small trader in Hiep Phuoc commune) expressed.
Faced with the above situation, leaders of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and Tay Ninh Provincial People's Committee officially agreed on the policy of expanding the entire Le Van Luong road and DT826C road in the period 2026-2030. This is a strategic step to synchronize inter-regional transport infrastructure, because currently in Tay Ninh province, DT826C is also in a similarly narrow situation with a width of only 6 m.
The biggest bottleneck on this road is the two iron bridges Rach Tom and Rach Doi that have seriously deteriorated after more than half a century of use. According to local people's reflections, every time a car moves across the bridge, dozens of motorbikes have to stop and wait for a long time because the bridge surface is too narrow. To remove this bottleneck, functional agencies are urgently deploying site clearance for dozens of households in Hiep Phuoc commune to build a new Rach Tom bridge. This project is expected to have a total investment of 497 billion VND, 174 m long with a modern 4-lane scale.
At the same time, Rach Doi bridge at the end of the route is also expected to be started by the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board this year to be completed in 2028. These efforts are a continuation of the success of the Long Kieng bridge project (opened to traffic in September 2023 with an investment of 580 billion VND) and Rach Dia bridge (just put into operation in November 2024 with an investment of more than 500 billion VND), gradually completely replacing the old iron bridges on the entire route.
Another bright spot for traffic in the area is the intersection with the Ben Luc - Long Thanh expressway section passing through Hiep Phuoc commune that has been completed. Currently, vehicles have begun to be allowed to circulate temporarily through this area while waiting for the entire route to open to traffic, helping to reduce traffic pressure on the existing Le Van Luong road. The synchronization between building new bridges and expanding the road surface in the coming years is expected to create a smooth traffic corridor axis, promoting socio-economic development for both Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh.
