On the afternoon of December 19, the leader of the Department of Transport of Khanh Hoa province informed that after 4 days of landslides, with efforts day and night, the units at the scene have cleared one-way traffic at Km43.
However, due to the rain in the landslide area, the risk of landslides is high and vehicles are not allowed to travel. The Department of Transport has notified tourist vehicles not to travel through Khanh Le Pass. The Department will make an announcement after the landslide recovery work has ensured safety for vehicles traveling through the pass.
As Lao Dong reported, on December 15, heavy rain caused serious landslides in many locations on Khanh Le Pass. At that time, dozens of vehicles and more than 300 people were trapped between the landslides.
Authorities of Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong provinces organized rescue of residents and tourists at night.
According to the report of Road Management Area III, the landslide on Khanh Le Pass is very large. At Km43+400, landslides from the positive slope covered the entire road surface with a length of more than 300m, with many large rocks blocking the way.
In particular, with a large rock of about 400m3, blocking the road at Km43+400, the functional unit used explosives to break the rock on the evening of December 16. However, after the explosion, the soil and rocks continued to collapse and cover the road at Km43+400. The construction unit discovered many large rocks so they had to continue breaking the rocks.
The rescue road at Km43+450 was seriously damaged by landslides and rocks; the 2-storey corrugated iron guardrail and the entire drainage ditch along the section from Km43+200 to Km43+500 were completely damaged. A 3cm wide, 28m long crack appeared on the asphalt concrete road surface from Km26+340 to Km26+368; a crack appeared on the asphalt concrete road surface from Km61+729 to Km61+759 with a width of about 20cm.
Road Management Area III proposed to declare a natural disaster emergency on National Highway 27C, the section passing through Khanh Le Pass.
The unit also mobilized 30 pieces of equipment, working 24/7 at 2 adjacent points. By 2:00 a.m. on December 19, the last landslide point at Km43+300 on Khanh Le Pass in Son Thai Commune, Khanh Vinh District had opened to traffic in one lane. However, the weather in Khanh Le Pass is still rainy, making the recovery work difficult.
