According to Lao Dong's records at nearly 11 am on January 1, 2026, many inner-city streets were clear on the first day of the 2026 New Year holiday. However, Ring Road 3 elevated towards the southern gateway experienced serious congestion.
Traffic jams occurred in the section from Big C Thang Long to the entrance to the Phap Van - Cau Gie expressway, about 10km long, with long lines of cars following each other, moving little by little.
Some impatient drivers drove their vehicles into the emergency lane to shorten travel time. This caused the traffic situation on the route to become chaotic at times.
Moving to Ring Road 3 from Khuat Duy Tien street at 9 am on January 1, but it was not until nearly 11 am that Mr. Le Xuan Truong was able to enter the Phap Van - Cau Gie highway to leave Hanoi to return to his hometown in Ninh Binh for New Year's Day holiday.
Mr. Truong said that vehicles move at a "crazy" speed, having to move little by little. There were times when he "stuck" for dozens of minutes on Ring Road 3 on high, making this man's journey back to his hometown more arduous than ever.
5 years of driving long-distance passenger cars on the Nghe An - Hanoi route, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hai (from Nghe An) is no longer unfamiliar with the scene of vehicles queuing for many kilometers on Hanoi Ring Road 3.
The traffic pressure on normal days is already high, now combined with the flow of people flocking to their hometowns for Tet, this vital route has become a giant "bottleneck"" - Mr. Hai said.
Ring Road 3 elevated is a vital traffic route of Hanoi, directly connected to 3 expressways and 3 national highways, with 10 intersections and access roads interconnecting elevated roads and low-lying roads.
However, for many years, this road has often fallen into a state of overload, especially at some large connecting points.
According to the Hanoi Department of Construction, the intersections of National Highway 5 (old), National Highway 5B and Phap Van - Cau Gie have been invested at a different level of completion, and traffic basically meets demand. However, congestion is still seriously concentrated at the two access roads of Thang Long Avenue and the Mai Dich - National Highway 32 intersection.
These are transit points between expressways, national highways and a section of urban road before vehicles reach Ring Road 3 elevated, causing a very high volume of large trucks and containers circulating, especially during rush hours.
From the above situation, the Department of Construction proposed and was agreed by the city to pilot the ban on trucks with a total weight of over 10 tons and container trucks circulating on Ring Road 3 elevated through the two intersections Mai Dich - Ho Tung Mau and Thang Long - Pham Hung - Khuat Duy Tien Avenue.
The limited time is during morning rush hours from 6am to 9am, afternoon from 4pm to 8pm, applied from January 1, 2026 for 3 months, to reduce congestion and ensure traffic safety on the route.
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