The Cho Moi - Bac Kan Expressway project is about 28.8km long, designed according to the standards of a type 80 expressway, with a scale of 4 lanes, a design speed of 80km/h with a total investment of more than VND 5,750 billion, invested by Project Management Board 2 (Ministry of Construction).
The Cho Moi - Bac Kan Expressway passes through Thanh Thinh, Thanh Mai communes and Bac Kan ward in Thai Nguyen province with a total of 1,624 households and organizations affected. The total estimated cost of compensation, site clearance (GPMB) and resettlement support is 671 billion VND.
However, by mid-July 2025, the handover of construction site to the investor was assessed to be slower than the proposed plan, affecting the construction progress on the entire route.
Mr. Mac Van Nghiep - Executive Director of the Cho Moi - Bac Kan Expressway project said that at present, the site is still a major barrier that prevents construction teams from accelerating. The area of land handed over to the new project has reached more than 55%
According to the Project Management Board, out of a total of 15 construction points mobilized by contractors, 4 points have not yet received the site for work (Km 0+00 - Km 2+00; Km 13+00 - Km 15+228; Km 15+228 - Km 16+660; Ban Chang bridge Km 0+938).
To date, the authorities have approved compensation and support plans for all 1,624 households with a total value of VND 477.25 billion. Of which, VND 363.94 billion has been paid to 1,387 households, while 237 households have not yet received the money. The total area of recovered land is 261.8 hectares, and up to now, 147.7 hectares (equivalent to 15.8/28.8km of route length) have been handed over.
In Thanh Thinh commune alone, there are still 159 households that have not received money (total of about 83.45 billion VND) with problems mainly related to overlap, have not approved a plan to self-resettle or households that still have opinions on unit prices.
Mr. Nguyen Huu Trung - Director of the Land Fund Development Center Branch of Thai Nguyen Province VI said that the site clearance work has achieved some positive results, but the site handover progress has not yet met requirements.
"The main reason is that the coordination between units is not very close, there is a lack of old land records to overcome overlaps, and the preparation and approval of resettlement plans is still slow. We recommend that the Provincial People's Committee direct departments, branches and localities to coordinate in handling the problems and completing assigned tasks' ' ' ' ', Mr. Trung informed.
According to the direction of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Construction, the Cho Moi - Bac Kan expressway must be basically completed and technically opened to traffic in December 2026 (3-month progress). Therefore, the workload is very large.
The investor has requested the local government to resolutely remove obstacles in site clearance, ensuring the plan to basically hand over the site in July 2025 so that the contractor can quickly deploy the construction phases.
