HCMC – The VND12 trillion Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway was inaugurated today, April 27, after 13 long years of construction, and will be officially opened to traffic three days later to coincide with the celebration of Vietnam’s Reunification Day (April 30).
The 51.5-kilometer expressway, which starts at the HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway and ends at the An Thai Trung Intersection in Tien Giang Province’s Cai Be District, is 98% complete, a senior authority of Trung Luong-My Thuan BOT JSC said.
The surface of the road, 53 bridges along the route, bypasses, interchanges, overpasses, and lighting and traffic systems have been completed.
Two main tollgates and three sub-tollgates are under construction. After the expressway is completed, road users will pay no toll fee for two months.
The relevant agencies will later assess the quality and the operation of the road.
The Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway is 16 meters wide with four lanes. In the future, the expressway will be expanded to six lanes, including two emergency lanes.
Work on the project started in 2009 and was initially planned to be ready within four years. However, by 2018, the investor of the project had been changed twice, while the estimated cost was revised three times and the planned completion of the project was delayed four times. As a result, the project was only 10% complete at the time.
After the project executing agency—the Ministry of Transport—was replaced by the Tien Giang government, the project cost was adjusted up to over VND12 trillion.
During the Lunar New Year holiday, the expressway was temporarily opened to traffic for over two weeks to ease pressure on National Highway 1, the main backbone between HCMC and the Mekong Delta, and closed from February 11 to complete the remaining works.
The road helps shorten the travel time between HCMC and My Thuan from three hours to an hour and 45 minutes.
