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PM breaks ground for tunnel road through Hai Van Pass

Date: August 28, 2000

DA NANG - Prime Minister Phan Van Khai yesterday pressed a button that exploded mines, breaking. ground for a part of the project to build a tunnel through Hai Van Pass.

The pass is a crucial section of the National Highway No. 1 A that links Thua Thien-Hue Province and Da Nang City in central Viet Nam, and the tunnel will facilitate transport on it, paving the way for economic development in the central region.

"The Hai Van Pass Tunnel Project has an important role in the country's transport development, especially in building road networks in the central provinces," Khai said. He called on provincial authorities to create favourable conditions for the project's managers; contractors and supervisors to ensure the success of the project."

The ground breaking ceremony was for the construction of a 6.4km road, part .of the 12.18km long tunnel which will be built 1,172m above sea level. The tunnel will link the Lang Co Bridge in Thua-Thien-Hue Province's Phu Loc District to the north and the Cau Den Bridge near Lien Chieu Industrial Park in Da Nang City to the south when it is completed in April 2004. It will reduce the length of the road across Hai Van Pass by nine kilometres, accommodating vehicles of up to 30 tonnes at a speed of 80km per hour.

"The project will facilitate transport on National Highway No. 1A, and help link the trans-Asia East West Transport Corridor with the Lien Chieu and Dung Quat Industrial parks through the Highway No. 9" said Transport Minister Le Ngoc Hoan.

Eighty five percent of the total project investment of US$251 million will be raised through official development assistance (ODA) loans to be provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The bank has pledged loans of JY5,500 million ($49 million) at an annual interest rate of 2.3 percent and a 30-year repayment period with a 10-yesr grace period for the fiscal year 1996 and another JY10,000 million ($90 million) at 1.8 per cent annual interest to be repaid over 30 years for fiscal year 1998.

"Because of its very steep terrain, Hai Van Pass is the most critical and dangerous section of the National Highway IA, the main artery from the north to the south of Viet Nam. In addition to the high rate of traffic accidents, the existing narrow pass is easily damaged by heavy rains like the ones last year, " said Koki Hirota, chief representative of JBIC Ha Noi office.

The Hai Van Pass Tunnel project will see the first combined road, tunnel and bridge complex in Southeast Asia. It will also be one of the 30 largest and most modem tunnels in the world.

Nguyen Ngoc Tran, general director of Project Management Unit 85 (PMU85), said the project will help reduce the number of accidents on Hai Van Pass, where some 20 accidents are reported every year.

Located about 1,0000km north of HCM City, some 2,500 vehicle use the pass each day and the figure is expected to rise to 7,000-8,000 vehicles/day in seven years.

Trail also said that the project, which will turn the 21 km pass into a 12km road and tunnel complex, will help save maintenance costs of vehicles and the cost of fuel.

The prime minister urged Vietnamese engineers and workers to study new construction technologies and learn from the experiences of foreign experts while participating in the construction process.

The Hai Van Tunnel is to be operate as a toll-road. Tran said that capital for the project will be refunded twenty years after its is brought into operation.

"I believe that the project will be a success and offer new evidence of the friendly and cooperative relations between Japan and Viet Nam," said Japanese Ambassador Takeshi Nakamura.- VNS

The tunnel project consists of seven packages: civil works (packages IA and IB); access road and bridges (packages IIA and IIB), electrical works; mechanical works; 110V/22kV substation and transmission lines; maintenance vehicles; and resettlement infrastructure. Contract package IA is the North Tunnel Section which consists of construction of a 3,365m long 80sq.m tunnel, a 3,365m long, 15sq.m wide evacuation tunnel, seven cross-passageways, a 138m long electrostatic precipitator, a 1,565m long ventilation shaft and a 85m approach road. Contract package IB is the South Tunnel Section which consists of construction of a 2,980m long 80sq.m tunnel, a 2,980m long, 15sq.m wide evacuation tunnel, seven cross-passageways, a 138m long electrostatic precipitator, a 1,565m long ventilation shaft and a 40m approach road. Contract package IIA is for road and bridge works for the Lang Co Section, consisting of the construction of a 867m, 26-span pre-stressed concrete girder bridge, a 782.6m two-lane asphalt-paved highway section and a northern toll gate plaza. Contract Package IIB covers road and bridge works for the southern section, consisting of the construction of six bridges (from Bridge No.2 to Bridge No. 7) all of pre-stressed concrete gilders with an aggregate length of 1001.2m, a 2,921.2m, two-lane, asphalt concrete-paved highway section and a southern tollgate plaza.

(Source: Vietnam News)

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