Le Anh
After multiple repairs, East-West Highway in the city's District 2 continues subsiding - Photo: Thanh Xuan
Ha Ngoc Truong, vice chair of the Center of Science and Technology Consultant for Bridges – Roads – Ports in HCMC (BROPOCE), said at a conference on subsidence of asphalt-covered roads held on June 25 in the city that poor-quality asphalt is the main reason for the sinking of the highway.
The other reason is a wrong prediction of the average number of trucks travelling annually from and to Cat Lai Port in the district via the highway. The initial forecast put traffic at only 10,000 trucks per day but the actual number is 22,000 trucks per day, which led to an inappropriate design for the road, he said.
Truong said in order to completely stop the subsidence, the highway contractor should increase the amount of polymer in the asphalt mixture, a method which has been applied sucessfully to fix the severe sinking of the section from My Thuy roundabout to Cat Lai Port, also in District 2.
Other solutions are to let trucks use more than one lane of the highway, and redirecting more goods to Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and to Hiep Phuoc Port in HCMC’s District 7 to ease truck traffic on the highway.
At the conference, traffic experts also discussed reasons for subsidence of roads in the northern and central regions and agreed upon three main causes – wrong design, inappropriate construction, and overloaded trucks.
The three problems will be further analyzed so that the most accurate reason for road subsidence can be found and reported to the Ministry of Transport.
In order to better inspect road quality, a laboratory has been set up at the HCMC University of Transport. It is equipped with different tools, allowing experts to conduct 259 national-stardard tests on road quality.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
