“Measuring” progress at the Beltway 4 Project

Vinaconex constructs parallel road of Ring Road 4 through Hanoi city

Increased pressure on progress

“We are urgently completing the establishment of the project enterprise and the negotiation and signing of the contract with the investor of Component Project 3, the Hanoi Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board,” said Mr. Nguyen The Cuong, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC).

VEC is the unit in the consortium of investors that won the bid for Component Project 3 - Investment in construction of the expressway under the PPP method, BOT contract type, under the Investment Project for Construction of Ring Road 4 - Hanoi Capital Region.

The inability to complete the contract negotiation process is the main reason why Component Project 3 - the "heart" of the Investment Project to build Ring Road 4 - Hanoi Capital Region - cannot be among the group of 250 projects selected to start construction and inaugurate on August 19.

Progress of parallel road component projects

Component project 2.1, investment in construction of parallel road (urban road) through Hanoi City: Hanoi People's Committee is the competent authority implementing in the form of public investment, length of about 58.2 km, scale of 2 lanes, preliminary total investment of about 5,388 billion VND, local budget capital.

The Hanoi People's Committee approved the design and cost estimates for construction packages, selected contractors, signed contracts and started the project on June 25, 2023.

Component project 2.2, investment in construction of parallel road (urban road) through Hung Yen province: Hung Yen Provincial People's Committee is the competent authority implementing in the form of public investment, length of about 19.3 km, scale of 2 lanes, preliminary total investment of about 1,505 billion VND, local budget capital.

Hung Yen Provincial People's Committee approved the design and cost estimates of construction packages, selected contractors, signed contracts and started the project on November 2, 2023.

Component project 2.3, investment in construction of parallel road (urban road) through Bac Ninh province: Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee is the competent authority implementing in the form of public investment, length of about 35.3 km, scale of 2 lanes, preliminary total investment of about 2,794 billion VND, local budget capital.

The project is divided into 3 packages. The People's Committee of Bac Ninh province has approved the design and estimate of 3/3 construction packages, selected contractors, signed contracts and started construction of package 14 on December 18, 2023, package 15 on April 10, 2024 and package 16 on May 31, 2024.

It is known that the relevant parties are currently aiming to start construction of Component 3 in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the specific commencement date being December 19, 2025, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam People's Army.

Previously, in mid-June 2025, after more than 6 months of selection, the Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee signed Decision No. 2952/QD-UBND approving the results of selecting investors to implement Component Project 3 with the selected investor being the consortium of CityLand Real Estate Investment Company Limited - Saigon Sunflower Company Limited - VEC - Horizon Investment Joint Stock Company (Horizon).

It is known that the proposed price for implementing Component Project 3 of the CityLand - Saigon Sunflower - VEC - Horizon Joint Venture is 56,050 billion VND, of which the sub-project using state capital in the PPP project has a total investment capital of 23,861 billion VND; the remaining part using investor capital is 32,189.54 billion VND, the time to collect fees to recover capital of Component Project 3 (according to the investor's proposal) is 21.36 years.

It is worth mentioning that, although the proposed price of the winning investor consortium is lower than the total investment of Component Project 3 approved in Decision No. 6479/QD-UBND dated December 20, 2023 of the Hanoi People's Committee (VND 56,293 billion), it is VND 2,746 billion higher than the total investment approved by the Hanoi People's Committee to update the financial plan (VND 53,302 billion) in Decision No. 712/QD-UBND dated February 14, 2025.

In addition, in the technical proposal, the CityLand - Saigon Sunflower - VEC - Horizon Joint Venture proposed a 36-month implementation period for Component 3 (construction progress) (the start date for putting the project into operation and collecting tolls is June 2028). This proposed progress is not consistent with the time specified in the Bidding Documents (completion in 2027) and significantly exceeds the progress milestone set by the National Assembly and the Government, which is to basically complete the entire route in 2026 and put it into operation in 2027.

“This could be one of the reasons why the negotiation process of the main contents of the BOT Contract of Component Project 3 took longer than planned,” commented a leader of a transport construction enterprise that participated in the investment proposal for this project.

It is known that Component Project 3 has a total length of about 113.52 km, of which 103.82 km of the main route is invested with a scale of 4 lanes, according to class A highway standards, design speed of 100 km/h.

The length of the route invested under the PPP method is about 60 km; the remaining part (including large river bridges such as Hong Ha, Me So, Hoai Thuong...) using budget capital is separated into a separate sub-project in Component Project 3.

Because the sections built with PPP capital are intertwined with sections invested with state budget capital, Component Project 3 can only be exploited synchronously and promote investment efficiency if the components by the CityLand - Saigon Sunflower - VEC - Horizon Joint Venture are completed on schedule.

Soil source bottleneck

It should be added that concerns about the progress of construction component projects of the Investment Project for Construction of Ring Road 4 - Hanoi Capital Region are clearly shown in Report No. 192/BC-BXD that the Ministry of Construction just sent to the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee earlier this week.

Specifically, the construction output of Component Project 2.1 - construction of parallel road through Hanoi City reached about 70%, Component Project 2.2 - construction of parallel road through Hung Yen reached 50.21%, basically meeting the required progress.

Meanwhile, the progress of Component Project 2.3 - construction of parallel road through Bac Ninh has only reached 39.56%, slower than required, mainly due to the scarcity of sand materials for weak soil treatment, affecting the overall progress of the project.

In addition, due to some difficulties in the process of site clearance, implementation of procedures for mining materials and unfavorable weather conditions, it is necessary to have the initiative, determination and outstanding efforts of the competent authorities, investors and contractors to ensure the set progress.

Along with the inability to complete the contract negotiation process, the source of construction materials is a big challenge for Component Project 3.

Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Construction, said that Component Project 3 is very large in scale in the transport sector, has complex technical characteristics and is the first project to be divided into a public investment sub-project since the Law on Investment under the PPP method took effect and is in the process of negotiating and signing contracts with investors and project enterprises.

Thus, at present, the contractor of Component Project 3 will not be subject to the special mechanism on material exploitation prescribed in Resolution No. 56/2022/QH15 as for contractors of other construction and installation component projects under the Investment Project for Construction of Ring Road 4 - Hanoi Capital Region (effective for 2 years from June 16, 2022 to June 16, 2024).

In fact, the supply of commercial construction materials is currently very scarce, pushing up prices, seriously affecting the progress and construction costs of many projects, especially projects using state budget capital (The Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch No. 85/CD-TTg dated June 10, 2025 on strengthening solutions to manage and stabilize construction material prices).

Meanwhile, the total demand for embankment materials for Component 3 Project is up to 10.028 million m3, including 5.024 million m3 of embankment soil and 5.004 million m3 of embankment sand.

Therefore, if the supply of common construction materials cannot be ensured to meet the demand according to the implementation progress, it will certainly affect the construction implementation and there is a risk of not ensuring the progress of the implementation of Component Project 3, affecting the investment efficiency of the entire Investment Project for the construction of Ring Road 4 - Hanoi Capital Region.

“The Economic and Financial Committee is requested to consult with the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee to allow the extension of the implementation period of the mechanism for handing over mines to mining contractors (as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 5, Resolution 43/2022/QH15) until the completion of the entire Ring Road 4 Construction Investment Project - Hanoi Capital Region to meet the requirements for construction materials to implement important national expressway projects, especially for Component Project 3 which is preparing to be implemented, expected to be completed in 2027,” said the leader of the Ministry of Construction.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/do-buoc-tien-tai-du-an-vanh-dai-4---vung-thu-do-ha-noi-d373503.html