Longer warranties urged on transport infrastructure

To improve quality, contractors should provide a maximum of seven years’ warranty for their work on transportation infrastructure projects, said Ministry of Transport authorities yesterday.

Head of the Ministry of Transport’s (MoT) Infrastructure Department Khuat Minh Tien said contractors prioritise profits over quality work so their projects often revealed damages after the current three year warranty period.

“Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are allocated from the State budget to fix the damages and improve the quality of infrastructure projects. This number only meets half of the actual demand,” he said.

Tuan argued that if the warranty period were to be extended, the contractors would be forced to construct higher quality products than they do currently.

Tuan’s suggestion was among many heard by MoT authorities in a conference held yesterday in Ha Noi to discuss resolutions to problems that have surfaced in many transportation infrastructure projects.

Hoang Ha, head of MoT’s Science and Technology Department, blamed the poor quality of transport infrastructure on the adoption of many foreign criteria in the construction process. He said many criteria used during the construction of transportation infrastructure in Viet Nam that were adopted from abroad were not suitable to Vietnamese geology and circumstances, which resulted in poor quality projects.

Ha suggested the MoT to continue reviewing and adding additional criteria to the technical framework for infrastructure construction to be more suitable with Viet Nam’s conditions.

In 2010, the MoT repaired and improved 1000km of road, 250km more than in 2009, according to the Transport Infrastructure Construction and Quality Control Department. About 30 km of bridges were also repaired and improved in the last two years.

Many projects were in good condition when they opened for use but some have shown serious damages, including National Highway No 91 (in southern Can Tho Province), National Highway No 53 (in southern Vinh Long Province), National Highway No 48 (in central Nghe An Province) and the concrete surface on Thang Long Bridge in Ha Noi, the department reported. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam Transport sector