Five projects that could ease HCM City's traffic congestion in 2018

The infrastructure projects are scheduled to be completed this year and might help ease the city's chronic congestion.

Thu Thiem Bridge 2

Once completed, this new bridge connecting District 1 with District 2 is expected to ease the traffic strain on Thu Thiem Tunnel and boost the development of District 2's Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

The bridge will start at the intersection between Ton Duc Thang and Le Duan streets, before crossing the Saigon River and ending at Thu Thiem's new Crescent Boulevard.

Built using the Build-Transfer (BT) model with a total investment of nearly VND4.26 trillion (US$188 million), the cable-stayed bridge will be nearly 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) long with six vehicle lanes. The bridge will have decorative lightings, and its 113-meter (371-foot) tall tower is designed to lean toward Thu Thiem and will act as a welcoming gate for the new urban area.

The bridge is scheduled to be inaugurated during the Reunification Day (April 30) holiday, 38 months after construction started in February 2015.

Four major roads in Thu Thiem New Urban Area

With a total investment of over VND12 trillion, this BT project includes the 6-lane Crescent Boulevard, a 4-lane road around the central lake, a 2-lane road along the river bank and an elevated road through the Eco Forest Park in the south.

The four roads will have a total length of nearly 12 kilometers and will include 10 bridges. Once completed, they will connect all existing structures such as Thu Thiem Bridge 1, East-West Highway and other planned bridges over the Saigon River, and will help boost the development of Thu Thiem.

The roads will also help connect the city's downtown with its neighboring provinces, therefore easing traffic congestions at the city's eastern gateway.

Works on the four roads started in April 2013, and they are scheduled to be completed in 2018.

My Thuy Intersection

Broke ground in June 2016, this VND840 billion project at the intersection between Belt Road 2, Nguyen Thi Dinh and Dong Van Cong streets in District 2 is expected to help ease congestion outside Cat Lai Port, the largest port in Vietnam.

The first phase of the project includes a 4-lane overpass along Belt Road 2, a tunnel for vehicles turning left from Belt Road 2 toward Cat Lai, a new Ky Ha Bridge 3 and new roads along both banks of the My Thuy Canal.

As the My Thuy intersection lies on the main path toward Cat Lai Port, it often suffers from heavy traffic congestion as a large amount of container trucks frequently passes through it on their way in and out of the port.

The project is scheduled to be completed in June 2018 and would help ease this congestion as trucks heading in and out of the port would not have to share the road with other vehicles.

An Suong Tunnel

This project at the intersection between Truong Chinh Street in District 12 and the beginning of National Highway 22 in Hoc Mon District aims to tackle one of the city's major congestion and accident hotspots.

The VND514 billion project includes two tunnels separating vehicles traveling in opposite directions. Each tunnel is 9-9.5 meter wide with 2 lanes and a speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour. The tunnels are designed with a lifespan of 100 years and would be able to survive magnitude 7 earthquakes.

Once the project is completed, this area will be a 3-level intersection with a ground-level road, a dual tunnel and an overpass. The project is expected to help prevent congestion along key routes connecting Ho Chi Minh City and its neighboring provinces.

Work on the An Suong Tunnel started in early 2017 and it is scheduled to be completed around August 2018.

Nguyen Thai Son Intersection Overpass

This project, which broke ground in February 2017 following an urgent instruction by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc with a total investment of VND504 billion, aims to ease congestion on streets around Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

When completed, the N-shaped overpass will have a total of three branches: from Nguyen Kiem to Nguyen Thai Son, from Nguyen Kiem to Hoang Minh Giam and from Hoang Minh Giam to Nguyen Thai Son. Each branch will be 370-meter long and 7.5-meter wide.

The Hoang Minh Giam-Nguyen Thai Son branch was opened in July 2017 while the Nguyen Kiem-Hoang Minh Giam was opened in November. The land for the last branch however is still being cleared.

Once the land is cleared, the final branch could be completed in three months, according to the project's investor. When all three branches are opened, the city's authorities expect that traffic congestion at this hotspot would be significantly reduced.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, the city's chairman, said in August that up to 7.6 million motorbikes and 700,000 cars were on the streets of the city.

The rapidly increasing number of private vehicles has been blamed for worsening gridlock in Vietnam’s biggest city.