Construction commences on phase 2 of North-South Expressway

Construction on 12 sub-projects of the North-South Expressway eastern section phase 2 kicked off on the first day of 2023 and is set for completion in 2025.

The 12 projects will develop road sections with a total length of 723.7 kilometers from 2021-2025 at a cost of VND147 trillion ($6.17 billion), and will open to traffic in 2026.

A major ceremony for the event took place in the central province of Quang Ngai with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in attendance.

The main parts are from Ha Tinh-Quang Tri (260.9 kilometers), Quang Ngai-Nha Trang (352.06 kilometers), and Can Tho-Ca Mau (110.9 kilometers).

The expressway will have six lanes, except for the Can Tho-Ca Mau stretch with only four.

In early 2021, the 13th Party Congress identified building synchronous infrastructure as one of three strategic breakthroughs, with the aim to build about 5,000km of expressways by 2030 and completing the North-South Expressway eastern section by 2025.

To achieve this goal, the government plans to complete 3,000km of expressways by 2025. The country currently has more than 1,400km of expressways, leaving 1,600km to be completed by 2025.

The giant North-South Expressway project has received a special mechanism in terms of contractor selection and procedures. Contractor appointments are applied to contracts involving consultancy, land clearance, resident relocation, construction, and installation.

Therefore, depsite its large scale and technical complications given the large number of bridges and tunnels, the period from investment approval to beginning of construction was less than one year, half of the time taken for similar projects.

Nearly 70% of land has been handed over to the 12 projects.