HCMC – A 24-km expressway section connecting HCMC and Long Thanh of neighboring Dong Nai Province will be widened to 10 lanes from the current four.
A proposal for expanding the HCMC-Long Thanh expressway section was presented to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at a meeting held on May 3. In an earlier proposal, the section would be widened to eight lanes only.
Due to heavy truck traffic, this section often faces traffic snarls at An Phu intersection and Phuoc Long toll plaza area near Long Thanh Bridge on the expressway. The traffic situation worsens at weekends and holidays given an upsurge in private cars that carry tourists between HCMC and major tourist destinations like Vung Tau, Phan Thiet and Dalat.
If the HCMC-Long Thanh expressway section is not widened in time for the inauguration in mid-2026 of the Long Thanh International Airport, traffic congestion would be far worse.
In phase one of the Long Thanh International Airport, the airport would handle 26 million passengers per year.
Moreover, an expressway linking Dong Nai’s Bien Hoa City and Vung Tau City of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province is under construction, so when it is opened to traffic, it would pile more pressure on the HCMC-Long Thanh expressway section.
The HCMC-Long Thanh expressway would shoulder 25% more traffic than capacity next year if its existing four lanes are kept unchanged.
