Thu Thiem Tunnel to open to traffic next year

The management board of the HCMC East West Highway and Water Environment project has announced to open the Thu Thiem Tunnel, an important package of the project, to traffic in the first quarter of 2011.Minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung urged the investor to ensure quality and progress of the project during a project tour on Saturday.

“Repair of four immersed tunnel sections has been completed at the fabrication yard in Dong Nai Province’s Nhon Trach District,” said head of the management board Luong Minh Phuc.

The State Appraisal Committee for Construction Projects assigned the Japanese contractor Obayashi to pump water into the tunnel sections to test for water proof ability on Wednesday.

The committee expected to make a final check on the sections on January 13. If they meet quality and safety standards, the contractor will use six tugboats to pull the sections, weighing 27,000 tons each, from Dong Nai Province to the tunnel construction site in HCMC’s District 1 within two months.

The investor plans to place the first section under the river on March 9, complete submerging the four sections three months later and connect them to the approach tunnel in late August. The management board will then begin load testing and throw the project open to traffic in the first quarter of 2011.

Construction of the Thu Thiem Tunnel began in 2005 but was suspended when cracks were found on the pre-constructed sections in 2008. It took relevant departments nearly a year to find solutions before repair of the sections began last June.

The Thu Thiem Tunnel is about 1.49 kilometers in length, 33 meters in width and nine meters in height with six lanes, three for each direction, for automobiles and motorcycles, not including two emergency lanes. The under-river section connecting districts 1 and 2 will be 370 meters long.

The speed limit is 60km per hour, which must be strictly complied with by all vehicles. Concerns of safety will be solved by technical systems installed inside the tunnel for ventilation, water pumping, damp-proofing, lightning, telecommunications, emergency alerting, fire and explosion prevention and automated gauges for noise, moisture, dust and exhaust tracking.

The project is worth nearly VND10 trillion with almost two-thirds of the capital funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The project with an estimated operational life of 100 years will help ease congestion on the Saigon Bridge and on main streets in the city.

Tags: Thu Thiem Tunnel, Vietnam Infrastructure