ADB Assists Viet Nam in Ho Chi Minh City Expressway Development

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a $10 million loan to help develop an expressway that will ease traffic congestion in and around Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Viet Nam and the country’s economic hub.

The Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway Technical Assistance Project will help the government of Viet Nam complete pre-construction activities for the proposed expressway. Pre-construction requirements include detailed engineering designs; updated resettlement plans for people who might be affected by the development; and bidding documents for acquisition of civil works, goods and consulting services.

The project will also strengthen the capacity of state-owned Vietnam Expressway Corp., which invests in expressway construction, management and operation and maintenance. The objective of this work is to strengthen Vietnam Expressway Corp. so that it can operate as a commercially-oriented infrastructure provider.

Total cost of the technical assistance is $11.22 million. Viet Nam will cover the balance to complete the funding requirement.

“The road network both within and around Ho Chi Minh City is becoming heavily congested. As a result, travel speeds are slowing and transport costs are rising. There is an urgent need to provide relief to the city roads connecting the center of Ho Chi Minh City and the port area with roads leading north from the city to central and northern Viet Nam,” said Paul Vallely, senior transport specialist of ADB’s Viet Nam Resident Mission.

Ho Chi Minh City also lies at a critical junction on the transport network for the Greater Mekong Subregion, so improvements to the network around Ho Chi Minh City will remove a major bottleneck in the subregion network. The Greater Mekong Subregion is composed of countries sharing the Mekong River –00000000 Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Lao Peple’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The proposed Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway project involves the development of a 57-kilometer, four-lane expressway between 2009 and 2012. It includes a bridge around 1,721 meters long, eight intersections and three toll plazas.

Expressways are designed to allow a large number of vehicles to move freely between major centers at high speed. Access is only provided at junctions that are widely spaced and take into account high safety standards. Expressways are usually expensive to construct and operate, so they must be supplemented by other types of roads.

Viet Nam’s economy has grown 8% in 2006, one of the fastest in the world, with industry leading the way with 10.4% growth. The rapid economic expansion has led to increased use of transport vehicles, which has worsened congestion on the highway network. Traffic is growing rapidly in the country, typically more than 10% a year.

“If industry is to continue as a major driver of growth, there is need to sustain the development of the highway transport system so that goods and people can be moved efficiently,” said Mr. Vallely. The construction of expressways along key corridors would ease congestion in large capacity highways, absorb traffic growth and reduce the number of road accidents.

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