Drilling has been completed on a 4.6km section of Hai Van Tunnel 2, while the walls for another 1.6km section have been finished after three years of construction.

Drilling work completes on a 4.6km section of Hai Van tunnel 2. — Photo courtesy Deo Ca company

Representatives of the Deo Ca Investment Joint-Stock Company confirmed to Viet Nam News that 74% of work has been completed on schedule.

The company said 30% of the 5.8km entrance roads and traffic signals on the two sides of the Hai Van Tunnel 2 were finished in late March.

It said the 6.29km tunnel project will be technically cleared this October in preparation for the final stage of the longest road tunnel in Viet Nam and ASEAN.

Construction on the second two-lane Hai Van Tunnel 2, which runs parallel to the two-lane Hai Van 1 tunnel, and upgrading the current two-lane Hai Van No 1 on the National Highways No 1A, started in April 2016 with total investment of 8.5 trillion VND (US$376 million).

The completion of the 6.29km Hai Van Tunnel 2 project and 5.85km entrance roads at the two ends of the tunnel will help speed up travel time for vehicles on the North-South road from 2020.

According to Deo Ca company, nearly 2.8 million vehicles passed through the Hai Van Tunnel 1 last year, and the tunnel plays a key role in the East-West Economic Corridor that links Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Viet Nam, and National Highway No 1A.

The two-lane Hai Van Tunnel No1, which was built at a cost of $150 million with part of Japan’s Official Development Assistance, was the longest road tunnel in Southeast Asia when it opened in 2005.

The tunnel was built for traffic through the 24km Hai Van Pass between Da Nang and Thua Thien-Hue. 

The Ministry of Transport also built the 80km La Son- Tuy Loan section on the Ho Chi Minh Highway in central Thua Thien-Hue Province to help reduce congestion through the Hai Van tunnel.

(Source: VNS)