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Workers join two halves of Hai Van tunnel

(Date: October 31, 2003; Sources: Vietnam News)

A section of tunnel is almost finished. — VNA/VNS Photos Cong Dien HCM CITY — Excavators achieved a major breakthrough in work on the Hai Van tunnel early on Wednesday morning, when workers on either side of the 6.7km tunnel met each other in the middle. The director of the project, Nguyen Thanh Tra, said, "We’ll hold a ceremony on November 7 to celebrate the technical completion of the tunnel, which is the first of its kind in Viet Nam." He said Project Management Unit 85 and other workers still had plenty more work to do before the tunnel officially opens to traffic next year. Staff of a joint venture between Japanese company Hazama and the Civil Engineering Construction Corporation 6 have dug 2.3km into the northern side of the mountain. They met workers from a consortium formed by Song Da Construction Co and Korean firm Dong Ah, who had blasted 3km into the rock on the south. Construction workers survey the progress of the Hai Van tunnel burrowing. The 12.2km-long roadworks will link Lang Co Bridge on National Highway 1A, south of Hue, with the Cau Den Bridge north of Da Nang. It will become one of the 30 largest tunnels in the world, with 4.95m of clearance, 11.9m in width and a 4.7m-wide emergency tunnel. The project is due to be completed by the middle of next year, and will allow vehicles of up to 30 tonnes travel at 80km/h. The tunnel began in August 2000 and will operate as a tollway when it opens next year, unit officials said. — VNS Borrowing to burrow The US$251 million project has drawn 85 per cent of its capital from official development assistance loans from the Japan Bank for International Co-operation. The tunnel project consists of seven packages: tunnel civil works, two access roads and bridges, electrical works, mechanical works, a 110V/22kV substation and transmission lines, maintenance vehicles, and resettlement facilities. (Source: PMU 85).

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