Opening of nearly 600 billion VND bridge at the southern gateway of Ho Chi Minh City

After 23 years of approval and 5 years of construction, Long Kieng Bridge in Nha Be with an investment of 589 billion VND opened to traffic on the morning of September 8, helping to increase traffic connectivity for the southern part of the city.

The bridge is located on Le Van Luong Street, across Phuoc Kieng River, connecting Phuoc Kien and Nhon Duc communes. The project is nearly one kilometer long, of which the bridge is nearly 320 meters long and 15 meters wide, with the rest being access roads at both ends. The project also includes a synchronous drainage and lighting system.

Long Kieng Bridge before opening to traffic, August 2023. Photo: Quynh Tran

Approved in 2001, the Long Kieng bridge was not started until August 2018, expected to be completed after two years to replace the old iron bridge next door that had deteriorated. However, due to site clearance problems, the project had to stop at the end of 2019 when only 7 bridge piers were completed. After nearly three years of stagnation, last September Nha Be district completed compensation and handed over the entire site to the investor, helping the project to be accelerated and opened to traffic three months ahead of schedule.

Looking forward to the project’s completion, many local residents showed up early this morning, waiting for the barrier to be opened for vehicles to cross the bridge. For many years, the project has been unfinished, and every day they have to cross the old, narrow iron bridge, which is often congested, so they hope the project will be completed soon.

Cars running over Long Kieng bridge, morning of September 8. Photo: Ha Giang

Mr. Luong Minh Phuc, Director of the HCM City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board (TCIP - investor), said that Long Kieng Bridge previously encountered many problems related to scale, capital sources, site clearance, and had to wait for adjustments, so construction only began in 2018. The completion of the project will help people in the area travel conveniently, increasing traffic connections for the south of the city with Long An province, through Le Van Luong Street.

Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Nguyen Thi Le said this is a "quarter-century" project, because the implementation process lasted up to 22 years. She said that during the project inspection in March 2021, she met Ms. Lam Thi Nga, born in 1937, and she shared that she "only hopes to live until the day Long Kieng Bridge is completed", so the city leaders are very concerned about speeding up the project's progress.

"After a year of being handed over the entire site, the investor has completed the project as committed, meeting the expectations of the people as well as the wishes of the city," said Ms. Le.

Location of the new bridge over Long Kieng canal. Graphics: Duc Hieu

In addition to the above project, TCIP leaders said that in Can Gio district, the Vam Sat 2 bridge with a total investment of more than 342 billion VND is also being prepared for the city to open to traffic. In addition, this unit is also pushing the construction of a series of other projects such as Nam Ly and Tang Long bridges, expanding Luong Dinh Cua street (Thu Duc city); Ba Hom bridge, Tan Ky Tan Quy street (Binh Tan district)...

Gia Minh

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/thong-xe-cau-gan-600-ty-dong-o-cua-ngo-nam-tp-hcm-4650732.html