Thinking about solutions for Hung Vuong Street

Hung Vuong Street, Tam Ky. Photo: PHUONG THAO

I was invited to attend the Social Criticism Conference on the project to complete Hung Vuong Street, Tam Ky City (December 27, 2024). Hung Vuong Street is associated with many memories for me.

Commemorating the re-establishment of the province

That was during the consultation conference to open the main road of Tam Ky city (currently Hung Vuong street), when the province was newly re-established, through field observations, we saw that the route passed through a very sparsely populated residential area.

Although the traffic demand at that early stage was very low, with a vision for the future, we proposed the idea of taking the red line boundary of the entire route to be 40m wide, and clearing the residents to compensate within that boundary.

When building a road, depending on the funding source, it will be built from both sides to the inner core. The median strip in front will be planted with shade trees and flowers, and will also be reserved land for expansion when needed to meet increased traffic volume.

That idea was highly appreciated by the conference. And Hung Vuong route was built with 6m sidewalks, 2 lanes of 7.5m each side and a 13m wide inner core as a median strip, planted with flowers and grass.

When the road was built and put into operation, the Provincial People's Committee held a meeting to name the roads. At that time, I spoke at the conference that almost all urban areas named the largest road after the king who founded the country. The name Hung Vuong Street was highly unanimous.

After nearly a quarter of a century, Tam Ky City's population has increased, the socio-economic development activities of Tam Ky and the chain of urban areas, industrial zones... have led to a rapid increase in traffic volume. The need to expand Hung Vuong Street has become urgent. Only then can we see that the far-sighted idea of that time has brought benefits to this day.

Comments for new projects

Regarding the proposal to reduce the median strip from 13m to 7m to build an additional lane on each side (each direction will have 3 lanes), including motorbikes, a mixed lane, and a car lane, I feel it is not okay.

In my rebuttal to the conference, I argued that if this proposal is followed, Tam Ky is repeating the same mistakes as the urban traffic problem in Vietnam. This is because there are no static traffic areas, so cars are free to park on the motorbike lanes. As a result, the road from 3 lanes to 2 lanes is actually reduced to 2, and traffic congestion and chaos are inevitable.

Typical of this problem, in Da Nang City, Nguyen Van Linh Street and Nguyen Huu Tho Street, although both have 3 lanes on each side, cars are parked close together on the motorbike lane, resulting in very chaotic traffic on the mixed lane.

I have opposed this solution and pointed out that Hung Vuong Street can completely solve this chronic problem. What is the specific solution?

To get out of the rut, it is necessary to build 4 lanes on each side. That is the lane next to the sidewalk - this lane is organized into parking bays interspersed with some grass and flower patches for the street; the next 3 lanes are the motorbike lane and 2 lanes for cars.

With the actual situation of Hung Vuong street, it is only necessary to cut 1m of sidewalk and 2m of median strip on each side, reducing the median strip from 7m to 3m, enough to plant flowers and grass.

With this solution, Hung Vuong Street will become the smoothest and most orderly traffic street in small cities in the country. In my opinion, this is the best solution. The rest is the choice of Quang Nam province.

Suddenly I remembered the famous saying of Swiss architect Le Corbusier. He talked about the philosophy of architecture: “There are no good architects, only smart clients.”

Hope I have more good memories of Hung Vuong street of Tam Ky city.

The Hung Vuong Street completion project has a total length of 5.634km, cross-section of 40m. This is one of the key projects of Tam Ky City, with a total investment of about 450 billion VND from the provincial budget.

This project is expected to complete the entire route, including drainage systems, sidewalks, trees and other ancillary works. The project will apply modern construction technologies, ensuring construction quality and long life.

Once completed, it can improve the traffic system, reduce congestion, improve people's quality of life and promote local socio-economic development.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/ngam-giai-phap-cho-duong-hung-vuong-3147036.html