Good news for tourists. On April 28, 2015, the Ministry of Transport, Dong Nai province and Lam Dong province celebrated the inauguration ceremony of renovating The Highway 20, the section from Dau Giay (Dong Nai) to Bao Loc (Lam Dong) approximately 109,5km. Now, tourists take a bus from HCMC to Dalat (Lam Dong) is only 5 hours, decreased by nearly half of the time before.
Convenient for everyone
To complete early the project of Highway 20 renovations and upgrades, the investor and the contractor has implemented many construction groups, centralized equipment and workers, took advantage favorable weather, put asphalt all the time of day and night, finished the project earlier than 7 months.
We went along Highway 20 from Dau Giay (Dong Nai) to Bao Loc city (Lam Dong). In the car, we felt very smoothly of road have been paved asphalt. Previously, this road is quite narrow, difficult for vehicles passing construction area. However, so far the road stretches like a silk carpet, some areas winding through forests, orchards creating a beautiful natural landscape.
Many tourists from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Lat were surprised, amused with changes of the route which had been “arduous”. Mr Le Thanh Tam, a tour guide in HCM City said that he had just finished shooting trip at beautiful corners of this road, promoting for tourists from HCM City to Da Lat admire more attractiveness on their way to The City of Dreams.
Standing in front of house for “watching” beautiful route, Mr Nguyen Duc Binh live in Gia Tan (Thong Nhat district, Dong Nai province) excited: “Previously, Highway 20 severely degraded, road full of big holes, muddy when rain come, so the movement of people very hard. Until now the road has been paved and flat, people move more convenient, we are excited, excited as ever … “.
Mr Nguyen Duc Tuan, a truck driver residing in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City said: “I often freight up and down Dalat, in the past, it takes more than 8 hours to get there due to bad road. It takes a lot of fuel costs, vehicle wear and tear. Now, Highway 20 was rebuilt so smoothly, journey was shortened only slightly more than 5 hours away, saving time and costs.
Good in construction
Mr Do Ngoc Dung, General Director of JSC BT20 – Mekong said: the long route of projects, the narrow space of construction, area’s weather is not favorable , rainfall, prolonged, construction had to guarantee smooth and safety traffic 24/24 hours, it should encounter many difficulties. All route of over 109,5km long had 4 bridges need to be replaced with new one, including La Nga bridge spanning La Nga River (Dinh Quan district, Dong Nai province) of XL.05 bid package, the construction company is Mekong East Co. Ltd has done well.
Although the bridge has the length of only 330m, but this is considered with “most difficult point” of project and was finished. Mr Dung said: “The project put into operation soon, shorten travel times on the road, saving the expense and increase investment efficiency of the project. The effectiveness and correctness of the mobilizing capital policy of the Government is a prerequisite for further cooperation and development in the next project … “.
Mr Nguyen Ba Hong, La Nga bridge construction commanders said, bridge construction site is located in the reservoir area of Tri An Hydropower plant should encounter numerous difficulties such as: The reservoir water reserves serve hydropower in the short time, so construction water level constantly changed and unpredictable; the lowest level and the highest is in a differences of ten meters making people work harder. However, to overcome above difficulties, construction groups had focused workers, equipment, work arrangements to accelerate. During peak times, company must arranged 11 construction groups continuously worked three shifts simultaneously …
Some information of project
The project restore and renovate Highway 20 in according to BT was started on 23/12/2011 with a total capital of 5,264.634 billion VND. In particular, the equity of investor is 601,463 billion VND (corresponding 11.42% of total investment). The rest is foreign credit loan with $ 250 million with a group of banks, international credit institutions with Goldman Sachs (USA) as its representative.
The started point of project is Dau Giay intersection at Km0 + 00 of Highway 20 (cross Number 1 Highway in Km1832+ 400), located in Thong Nhat District, Dong Nai Province and the end point of project is km123 + 105.17 of Highway 20 (cross provincial road 725) is located in Bao Loc City, Lam Dong province. The total project length is approximately 109,5km.
