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Construction of Hai Van Tunnel at risk

(Date:September 30, 2002. Source: Vietnam News)

HA NOI — Construction of National Highway 1’s Hai Van Tunnel has been placed in jeopardy by a continuous water leak which is disrupting construction and causing safety concerns.

Waterlogged: Experts hope to quickly address the construction difficulties dogging the Hai Van Tunnel. — VNS Photo Ngoc Tuan

Director of the tunnel project Nguyen Ngoc Canh said engineers and workers had temporarily plugged the subsoil water which was leaking into a ventilation tunnel.

The main tunnel, under the popular Hai Van Pass, is a crucial section of National Highway 1, linking Thua Thien Hue Province and Da Nang city.

Canh said the subsoil water source is 900m from the mouth of the ventilation tunnel with water-currents of 300cu.m per hour. He said the water leak seemed to be occurring because of a fault in the geology layer. The project team had undertaken comprehensive preparations before construction, he said, but landslides were unavoidable.

The ventilation tunnel runs from the top of the Hai Van Pass down to the major tunnel to supply air to a system of cross-passages. The water leaking into the ventilation tunnel has been pouring into construction sites for other tunnels, requiring the constant use of water pumps.

The leak has been plugged temporarily with concrete, but Canh said engineers were not confident this would hold and that a permanent solution was needed to ensure the tunnel’s long-term safety.

Canh said he had approached the Ministry of Transport to come up with a solution to deal with the problem, which would not delay work on the project. He said the approaching flood and rainy season meant a viable solution needed to be found soon. To date, construction units have dug close to half of an evacuation tunnel, 1.350km of the northern section of the ventilation tunnel, and completed a steel-made frame for the main tunnel’s mouth.

The three-tunnel project is costing US$251 million, with 85 per cent coming from official development assistance loans provided by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation. — VNS

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