HA NOI (VNS) – Transport Minister Dinh La Thang has asked road agencies to identify the causes of and solutions to subsidence on major roads across the country by the end of this year.
The deteriorations have appeared on many major roads including National Highway No1 and No5, part of National Highway No3 from Ha Noi to Thai Nguyen and the Noi Bai- Lao Cai Expressway.
The problem has caused headaches for the transport sector and stirred public outcry with cracks even appearing on new roads opened only a few weeks or months prior.
Speaking at a workshop held by the ministry on Tuesday to discuss road degradation, transport officials and experts urged for the Government to tighten control over the quality of asphalt used to build roads, road construction and design and overloaded vehicles.
Head of the ministry’s Sciences and Technology Department, Hoang Ha said that the subsidence was more common at major turns or at the top of sloped sections of roads.
He said that contractors were using poor quality materials, inflexible designs among different parts of the roads or use the same pavement types for different kinds of roads in different geographic and weather conditions.
“Overloaded trucks make the situation worse,” Ha said, citing that from northern Ha Nam Province to Thanh Hoa, 23 per cent of trucks were found to be overloaded, most of which were carrying three times the permitted weight.
Tran Xuan Sanh, director of the ministry’s Project Quality Management Department said that lackluster materials, outdated technology and inexperienced contractors were behind the poor quality roads.
Minister Thang ordered that by next month, road project management boards and investors would have to make plans to repair degraded roads, cracks and subsidence.
He added that design consultants, supervisors, road project management boards and contractors would need to improve their performance and boost independent assessment.
He asked the Project Quality Management Department to examine roads with expired warranties in the three months following.
The department also requested contractors to fix problems or they would be held responsible, Thang said.
Minister Thang said that he was also willing to approve any solution that could prevent subsidence over the next five years. – VNS
Minister vows to fix damaged roads Related image(s)
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