The two-lane Hai Van Tunnel 2 connecting Thua Thien-Hue Province with Da Nang started operating in January, significantly contributing to reducing traffic vollumes passing through the over 15-year-old parallel Hai Van Tunnel 1, ensuring smooth movement of vehicles from the North to the South , thus ensuring traffic safety.

Vehicles are seen travelling through Hai Van Tunnel 2

The Hai Van Tunnel 2 is designed for one-way traffic, with two lanes totalling seven metres in width, plus safety strips and sidewalks for pedestrians and maintenance work, and such auxiliary items as rescue, fire prevention and fighting systems, a toll station and a technical parking station.

The Hai Van Tunnel 2 project is the most difficult project in Viet Nam in terms of engineering and technology solutions. The new tunnel has been developed via the application of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), also known as the sequential excavation method, which is a popular method of modern tunnel design and construction. This modern tunnelling technique has been successfully applied in many developed countries across the world because it has more advantages than conventional methods.

The new development helps enhance transport capacity, reduce travel expenses, shorten travel time for vehicles on the North-South road, promote regional economic development and enhance national competitiveness, ensure national defence and security in the coming time.

Moreover, the operation of the Hai Van Tunnel 2 can ensure a more synchronous transport connection with Central Highlands or the East-West Economic Corridor.

Thanks to the opening of the new tunnel, traffic congestion caused by two-way traffic in Hai Van Tunnel 1 as reported previously no longer exists, and especially, the time for vehicle to pass through tunnels has reduced by more than 50% as compared to before. 

Also encouragingly, since the new tunnel was put into operation, no accidents and explosions have been reported.

The volume of traffic circulating through the Hai Van Tunnel 2 has increased dramatically over recent times, said Mr Ngo Truong Nam, General Director of the Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered Deo Ca Investment JSC, the private partner in the public - private partnership that built the Tunnel 2.

From March 1 to March 22, 247,444 vehicles circulated through Hai Van 2 Tunnel, with an average of 5,000 recorded per day.

Mr Phan Tan Thanh, a seafood truck driver residing in Son Tra District said that thanks to the opening of the new tunnel, he is no longer afraid about the possibility of good spoilage during road transportation process from Thua Thien- Hue Province to Da Nang. The average time for vehicles to pass through both the tunnels reduced from about 15 minutes to about 6 minutes. At the same time, the risk of traffic accidents is also considerably minimised. 

It is also known that, thanks to the simultaneous operation of both tunnels, no traffic congestion was reported, whilst the average visibility in the tunnel increased from 85% to more than 95%, and the average speed of vehicles climbed from 45km/h to 65km/h.

However, the Deo Ca Investment JSC has raised concern over a growing number of drivers exceeding the speed limit of 70km/h when passing through the Hai Van Tunnel 2.

About 13,234 violators have till date been reported. Therefore, functional bodies have focused on disseminating compulsory traffic regulations on electronic signage systems, FM waves at 102.7Mhz and loudspeaker systems to ensure tunnel users’ strict compliance.

Reporting by THANH LAN – Translating by A.T