Ensuring "smooth" road traffic

Binh Duong province is now over 5,000km of roads, including 75km of highways, 725km of urban roads, 462km of provincial roads, 938km of district roads and nearly 3,000 km of communal roads. Compared to other regions in the country, the province's road density is quite high, reaching nearly 2km / km2; are synchronously invested, and meet the travelling demand and local socio-economic development requirements.

Ensuring road’s durability

According to the survey conducted by provincial People’s Council Economic - Budget Commission of the road’s use and maintenance in Dau Tieng and North Tan Uyen district, the delegation examined the reality of roads in the two provinces. DH411 road of North Tan Uyen district is an asphalted road decentralized by the province. Bui Quang Phuc, Deputy Head of district Urban Management Office, said because previously this road had been asphalted, road surface’s bearing capacity was low, usually had to bear overloaded trucks, thus road surface had been quickly peeled off. Due to limited funds, cumbersome procedures, potholes are getting bigger, obstructing vehicles.

A road in My Phuoc ward, Ben Cat town was maintained

“In order not to patch many times and waste money, the district consulted experts and construction contractors, learned experiences of the province and localities, we changed our method to use efficiently the state’s investments, ensure the traffic safety and long use of roads”, said Mr. Phuc.  

Regarding difficulties of funding and road maintenance procedures, Tran Ba ​​Luan, Director of Department of Transportation, said the department had also realized the degradation of some roads in the province, and started the repair since early this year. At present, the road maintenance is executed on schedule.

Adapting promptly

Every year, Binh Duong collects over VND200 billion for road maintenance fund. According to regulations, the province is allowed to deduct 35% for the road system’s maintenance. However, this amount is not enough, and the procedures are also complicated, like: selecting a design consultant for surveying, setting up a file specifying damage or-ordinates and levels etc. to plan for repair; then waiting for 45 days for bidding, then assessing, negotiating. These procedures take at least 6 months to complete. Despite continuous reminders, road maintenance of 2016 is now still on …papers.  

According to Mr. Luan, to ensure smooth road traffic, the transport sector must implement provisional solutions: During the preparation, the sector should coordinate with other units to maintain damaged roads and prevent potholes from getting bigger, causing time-consuming procedure modifications; constructed workloads must be carefully negotiated to save cost, reduce arising damages…

Reported by D.Chi – Translated by Ngoc Huynh