"Bottleneck" of Ba Ngan Bridge

Traffic jams occur frequently on Ba Ngan Bridge. Photo: CT

Frequent traffic jams

Living in Ha Nhuan village (Duy Phuoc commune), Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Canh's family witnesses motorbikes and cars lining up to cross Ba Ngan bridge every day. Mr. Canh's wife said that during rush hour from 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning and from 5:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, mixed vehicles "crowd" across the bridge, which is only over 3m wide, causing traffic congestion, stretching from the approach road on the Duy Phuoc side to the approach road on the Cam Kim side. Large tourist vehicles take advantage of the opportunity to move around enough to get across the bridge. Many traffic collisions occur, causing serious injuries to the victims.

The approach road to the bridge is located at a curved section with limited visibility. Photo: CT

Local people said that at first, they heard that Ba Ngan Bridge was only for motorbikes, small vehicles and pedestrians to pass through, but trucks, passenger cars and small cars also passed through the bridge. The authorities had posted signs prohibiting trucks of 6 tons or more, but drivers still ignored it because if they went around, they would have to go dozens of kilometers. On the contrary, law enforcement officers were not always on duty to control and handle the situation.

Talking to reporters of Quang Nam Newspaper, Chairman of Duy Phuoc Commune People's Committee - Mr. Le Hai said that in the past, to cross Thu Bon River to Cam Kim Commune as well as the center of Hoi An City, people used unsafe ferries. With the attention of superiors, in 2019, a bridge was built on National Highway 14H with a length of more than 200m, a vehicle width of 3.5m (including the bridge railing).

[ VIDEO ] - Traffic from Cam Kim commune to Ba Ngan bridge is very crowded:

According to Mr. Le Hai, the Ba Ngan bridge was invested in, connecting Duy Xuyen with Hoi An and Dien Ban, meeting the needs of the residents of his commune in particular and Duy Xuyen in general through studying, working and trading in Hoi An and the eastern part of Dien Ban, creating favorable conditions for developing community tourism. The initial purpose was mainly to solve the problem of motorbikes and rudimentary vehicles passing through the bridge.

However, through searching on Google, car drivers see that the distance from Hoi An to Duy Xuyen on Highway 14H, Ba Ngan Bridge is the shortest distance, so they choose this route to travel. Tourists from Hoi An also choose to go through Ba Ngan Bridge to the center of Duy Xuyen district, to My Son Temple Complex, Dai Binh tourist village (Nong Son).

Expansion is necessary

People travel over Ba Ngan bridge to enter Hoi An center, the eastern area of ​​Dien Ban to study, trade, and work. Photo: CT

Cars, trucks, and small vehicles pass through Ba Ngan Bridge in large numbers, especially in the early morning and late afternoon. The two roads leading to the bridge are curved and have limited visibility, and the roads are narrow, so traffic jams occur frequently and last for a long time.

Duy Phuoc Commune authorities said that to ensure security and order in the Ba Ngan Bridge area, the locality has installed security cameras. Thanks to this, many cases of prolonged traffic jams have become so tense that they lead to arguments and even fights. The Commune Police force immediately arrived at the scene to restore order.

Motor vehicles carrying foreign tourists pass Ba Ngan Bridge. Photo: CT

Since the beginning of the year, the Ba Ngan bridge area has experienced hundreds of traffic jams, causing disorder and insecurity. Many people, out of frustration, took photos and recorded live videos during traffic jams to post on social networking sites, along with vulgar and uncultured words, causing a bad image of security, order and traffic culture. Not to mention, the northern approach road to the bridge is low (Cam Kim commune bank), during the rainy season, the Thu Bon river water rose above alarm level 1 and crossed, causing flooding. Faced with the above situation, the locality has dispatched forces to regulate traffic, not allowing people to recklessly cross.

[VIDEO] - Cars "squeezed" between motorbikes and primitive vehicles:

In order to ensure traffic safety for people and tourists, reduce the risk of accidents, maintain security and order, and contribute to building a model new rural commune, Duy Phuoc commune has proposed the Provincial Department of Transport and the People's Committee of Duy Xuyen district to pay attention to directing the relevant agencies to have appropriate solutions. At the same time, install signs regulating load capacity, signs prohibiting trucks during rush hours; install convex mirrors at the bend of the road leading to Ba Ngan bridge.

In particular, people expect competent authorities to consider and allocate resources to invest in the construction and expansion of this urgently needed bridge.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nut-that-co-chai-cau-ba-ngan-3143803.html