Construction of North-South Expressway, Hau Giang - Ca Mau section.

The Ministry of Transport has just clarified information related to the fact that some households in Hamlet 9, Vi Thang Commune, Vi Thuy District, Hau Giang Province have their winter-spring rice fields affected, reducing productivity due to the use of salty sea sand by the expressway project.

The Ministry of Transport affirmed that the component projects of the North-South Expressway in the East phase 2021-2025 in general, and the Can Tho - Ca Mau section component project in particular, all use river sand.

The Can Tho - Ca Mau section is currently using only sand filling materials from river sand mines provided to the Project by the People's Committees of An Giang, Dong Thap and Vinh Long provinces under a special mechanism.

The process of mining and transporting sand materials to construct the project is strictly controlled by many relevant agencies and units. Local units have controlled the registration of the contractor's means of transport, installed vehicle tracking devices, and installed and positioned cameras to monitor mining equipment.

On the part of the investor, supervision consultant, and contractors: material testing must be conducted before approving the source; when bringing sand to the construction site, it must be tested for grain composition and physical and mechanical indicators according to the technical instructions and must meet the requirements to be approved by the supervision consultant and investor; testing and inspection work must be performed at regular intervals. In addition, there is control by other agencies regarding origin, invoices, documents, etc.

Regarding the use of sea sand for pilot expansion construction, currently, the My Thuan Project Management Board and contractors are working with the People's Committee of Soc Trang province to complete the licensing procedures for exploitation to construct sections in areas with environmental conditions similar to the pilot area and it is expected that exploitation can begin at the end of June 2024.

To comprehensively, scientifically and objectively assess the information about the winter-spring rice area being affected and reducing rice productivity due to the use of salty sea sand by the expressway project, the Ministry of Transport will coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and localities to organize inspections and determine the cause in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister.

The North-South Eastern Expressway Project, phase 2021-2025, Can Tho - Ca Mau section, needs about 18.46 million m3 of sand for embankment. Up to now, the supply has been identified as 15.962 million m3, and 4.559 million m3 have been exploited and mobilized to the construction site.

According to the construction schedule, the loading work needs to be completed by October 2024 to basically complete the opening of the route in 2025. The volume of the two projects that need to be filled with K95 sand is about 15 million m3, including: Can Tho - Hau Giang section 4.6 million m3 and Hau Giang - Ca Mau section 10.4 million m3.