Phu My cable-stayed bridge and road along Tau Hu – Ben Nghe Canal opened to traffic in HCM City on September 2.
Phu My cable-stayed bridge and road along Tau Hu – Ben Nghe Canal, both parts of the East-West Highway, opened to traffic on September 2. They are two events to highlight Ho Chi Minh City’s development, especially when the city’s bridge and road system has day after day become overloaded.

The ten kilometer bridge over Sai Gon River connecting Districts 2 and 7, which opens to traffic on National Day to check technical parameters, has a height from the bridge to the water face of 45 meters. As such it allows large vessels to travel under the bridge to seaports further inland.

The bridge has been built with modern technology and high safety in mind, said Nguyen Thanh Thai, general director of Phu My Bridge BOT. He was referring to an unlikely case that a cable breaks, however, the bridge would still be safe for people and vehicles crossing at the time.

Phu My, the first bridge in the city being completed three months ahead of schedule, has been built by a group of oversea Vietnamese investors and domestic businesses in the Build – Operate – Transfer (BOT) form.

The bridge has been built to last at least 100 years, and for the first 26 years investors will collect road tolls.

Phu My Bridge is an important part of the city’s Ring Road No 2 that has been under construction. When the road is complete, all trucks will travel here instead of going through the city, which will help reduce traffic jams.

The bridge, the most difficult part of the ring road construction, has been completed.

Canal road opens to traffic

The road along side Tau Hu – Ben Nghe Canal, another important work of East West Highway Project, has basically been completed and will open to traffic on September 2.

The nine kilometer road, with five to six lanes, begins at Thu Thiem Tunnel door in District 1 and passes Districts 4, 5, and 8 to end at Lo Gom Canal in District 6.

At present, large streets in the city like Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Tran Hung Dao and Hung Vuong are always clogged, especially where street faces have been narrowed due to construction of drainage projects.

Luu Chi Tuong, owner of a transport service business expressed happiness to know the road has been completed.

He said that his company’s container trucks regularly take four hours to travel a few kilometers from Nguyen Van Linh Revenue to An Lac Roundabout due to traffic.

The company has to often compensate the goods’ owners due to late delivery.

Besides the road, engineers and workers are rushing to complete another section of the highway project, Thu Thiem Tunnel, beneath Sai Gon River.

Vuong Hoang Thanh, deputy director of the highway project’s management board, said that the contractor has repaired cracks in pre-constructed sections of the tunnel.

It is expected that the repair will be complete this year and the tunnel will begin the installation at the beginning of next year.

The East-West High Way is the most modern urban street in HCMC.

The city’s People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Architecture and Planning to draft a statute to manage the architecture of construction works around the highway to make the area become one of the most beautiful areas in the city.

VietNamNet/SGGP