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| The blueprint for Phuoc Khanh Bridge. — Photo dantri.com.vn |
HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam Expressway Company (VEC) held a ceremony on Saturday marking the start of construction on the Phuoc Khanh cable-stayed bridge over Long Tau River in HCM City's Can Gio District.
Phuoc Khanh Bridge will be 3.18 km long, including the cable-stayed bridge connecting HCM City's Can Gio District and Nhon Trach District in Dong Nai Province and its viaducts, according to VEC Deputy Director General Pham Hong Quang.
The new cable-stayed bridge will be 21.75 m wide with four lanes, costing VND3.5 trillion (US$160 million). It was designed for vehicles traveling at 80kph in its first phase and 100kph after construction is complete, Quang said.
With a vertical clearance of 55 metres – the highest vertical bridge clearance in Viet Nam - Phuoc Khanh Cable-stayed Bridge was designed to allow large vessels through to dock in HCM City.
The contractors are Japanese firm Sumitomo Mitsui Construction and its local partner Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (Cienco 4).
The new bridge, which is a key component of the Ben Lu c - Long Thanh Expressway project, is scheduled for completion in three and a half years.
The Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway will be 57.1km, running Ben Luc and Can Giuoc districts in Long An Province; HCM City's Binh Chanh, Nha Be and Can Gio districts; and Nhon Trach and Long Thanh districts in Dong Nai Province.
The first phase of the expressway project requires investments of about VND31.3 trillion ($1.6 billion), including loans of $636 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and $635 million from the Japanese Government through the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA). The Vietnamese Government will also provide $337 million in counter capital.
Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Dong said the new bridge would boost socio-economic development in the Southern Focal Economic Zone.
He asked municipal and provincial authorities in HCM City, Long An and Dong Nai to speed up site clearance so the construction could stay on schedule. —VNS