Architecture competition for river-crossing bridges to change the urban landscape

Before construction, An Hao Bridge had an architectural design competition. Photo: Pham Tung

Create urban highlights

For a long time, when mentioning Hue city, besides historical relics, one of the outstanding highlights attracting tourists is the bridges over the Perfume River, Truong Tien Bridge, Phu Xuan Bridge and most recently Nguyen Hoang Bridge with truly beautiful architecture has become the highlights of this urban area, besides the pure traffic connection function.

Similarly, with the Han River, Da Nang city has also built bridges across the river to meet many goals from traffic connection, tourist destination and urban highlight such as: Han River Bridge, Dragon Bridge, Thuan Phuoc Bridge...

Dong Nai , with the Dong Nai River flowing through major cities, also has great potential to build bridges across the river to meet the above goals. However, in reality, the bridges across the river in the province currently only meet the criteria for traffic connection. Meanwhile, the goals of creating destinations for tourists and creating highlights for the city are almost "left open".

At the end of 2015, An Hao Bridge across Dong Nai River officially started construction. With a prime location, located at the urban gateway area, before starting construction, this bridge was also organized by the authorities for architectural design competition. The competition then selected 2 second prize winning options (no first prize). However, due to many reasons, these options were not applied when implementing the construction of the project.

In early 2023, Thong Nhat Bridge across Cai River, a part of Bien Hoa City Central Axis Road Project, officially started construction. With the prime location of Bien Hoa city, now in Tran Bien ward, this bridge was also proposed to organize an architectural competition with the goal of building a bridge that not only plays the role of connecting traffic but also creates a highlight for the city. However, the architectural competition for this bridge could not become a reality.

Provincial Party Committee member and Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha said: Currently, in the province, the river bridges only meet one single value, which is traffic connection. Meanwhile, no bridge has been able to meet the value of creating an architectural highlight for the urban area.

Architectural competition, urgent need

Currently, to enhance traffic connectivity to serve the needs of economic and social development, Dong Nai province is implementing many traffic infrastructure projects, including the construction of road bridges across rivers.

The Cat Lai Ferry Replacement Bridge (Cat Lai Bridge) and Long Hung Bridge (Dong Nai 2 Bridge) are projects that the province is promoting investment procedures for. Both projects have attracted many businesses to participate in proposing investment construction. Design options for these two bridges have also been proposed for implementation.

Deputy Director of the Department of Construction Duong Van Hieu said: With Cat Lai Bridge, the cable-stayed bridge design basically meets aesthetic requirements. However, with Long Hung Bridge, a bridge spanning the Dong Nai River and passing through the urban area, the cantilever bridge design solution is not really suitable in terms of architecture. "For this bridge, the Department of Construction proposed to organize an architectural competition" - Mr. Duong Van Hieu shared.

According to Mr. KHUONG NGUYEN DUC CHUONG, Chairman of the Dong Nai Province Architects Association, architectural competitions, including the bridge over the river architecture competition, need to expand the number of participants to receive more options. In architectural competitions, one of the factors that needs to be focused on is the identity to create a unique feature for each urban area.

According to Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha, Cat Lai Bridge and Long Hung Bridge are major construction projects of the province. These bridges not only play a role in connecting traffic but also aim to create urban highlights. Therefore, Dong Nai province will organize architectural competitions for these bridges. "It would be a pity to spend a large amount of capital to invest in construction without organizing an architectural competition to create works of a lifetime" - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Ho Van Ha emphasized.

Chairman of the Dong Nai Province Architects Association Khuong Nguyen Duc Chuong said: For any urban area, creating a good impression of architecture and urban landscape, especially for special urban areas, is very necessary. River bridges in urban areas, if beautifully designed and suitable for the surrounding landscape, will create architectural and landscape highlights for that urban area. “Therefore, I strongly support the policy of competition for river bridges in the province. Because through the competition, the authorities will receive ideas and suggestions to perfect the architectural plan, creating urban highlights. Most importantly, from those ideas, the authorities will receive and synthesize to have a final plan to create identity and unique features for Dong Nai city" - Mr. Khuong Nguyen Duc Chuong shared.

Pham Tung

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202509/thi-tuyen-kien-truc-cau-vuot-song-de-thay-doi-dien-mao-do-thi-a621a76/