(QNO) - On May 15, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Hong Quang signed and issued Official Dispatch No. 2914 on traffic organization, repair, inspection and load testing to ensure traffic safety on the old Cau Lau Bridge (on the old National Highway 1) after at span number 8 from the southern abutment, an incident occurred where the railing pillar and the eastern handrail were completely cracked with a length of 11.5m and a height of 0.9m ( Quang Nam Newspaper reported).

Official dispatch sent to the Department of Transport, Department of Finance, People's Committee of Dien Ban town, People's Committee of Duy Xuyen district and Road Management Area III (Vietnam Road Administration).

According to the content of the dispatch, after reviewing the Quick Report No. 145 dated May 13, 2023 of the Duy Xuyen District People's Committee and the proposal of the Department of Transport in Official Dispatch No. 1519 dated May 14, 2023 on traffic organization, repair, inspection and load testing to ensure traffic safety on the old Cau Lau Bridge, the Provincial People's Committee requested the Duy Xuyen District People's Committee to urgently adjust the load limit across the bridge from 10 tons to 5 tons while waiting for the procedures to repair, inspect and load test the old Cau Lau Bridge. Thereby, it aims to limit the impact of further damage to the bridge, ensuring safety for the bridge and vehicles.

Duy Xuyen District People's Committee organized to put up signs at the scene, have a solution to safely fence the broken section of the handrail pillar of the 27th bridge span (counting from North to South) and continue to survey other sections of the entire project, if there is a risk of collapse, there will be an urgent solution to handle it. Notify the Road Management Area III about the 5-ton traffic load limit to adjust the traffic diversion plan when repairing the new Cau Lau bridge.

At the same time, be responsible for widely announcing on mass media so that organizations and people know, have appropriate transportation and travel plans; arrange functional forces to increase patrols, regular control to handle violations (if any). Organize the dismantling or notify the management units of the electric cable system, optical cable, water supply system that is hanging, attached to the bridge railing system to urgently move, dismantle to reduce the impact on the bridge railing system.

The Provincial People's Committee requests the People's Committee of Dien Ban town to urgently organize the installation of signs at the scene; install signs to guide vehicles going in the direction of the new Cau Lau bridge on the Vinh Dien bypass (National Highway 1). Arrange functional forces to increase patrols, regular control, and handle violations (if any) on the bridge and the approach road to the bridge in the town.

The Provincial People's Committee agreed on the policy and assigned the Department of Transport to urgently preside over and coordinate with relevant departments, branches, units and localities to organize inspections, tests and load tests to determine the limited load for traffic.

The Department of Transport shall survey and design the repair of railings and sidewalks; repair the horizontal connection system to fix cracks along the bridge's centerline and other repairs and fixes after having the results of inspection and load testing to determine the traffic load limit; send the proposal and estimated budget to the Department of Finance to preside over the inspection and advise the Provincial People's Committee to consider and arrange.

The Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Finance to advise the Provincial People's Committee to promptly arrange funds for the Department of Transport to carry out inspection, repair and troubleshooting of the old Cau Lau bridge, ensuring traffic safety, construction safety and people's travel.

The Provincial People's Committee also requested Road Management Area III to coordinate and have a plan to adjust the traffic flow plan when repairing the new Cau Lau bridge to ensure that vehicles with a load capacity of more than 5 tons and passenger vans with more than 30 seats do not pass through the old Cau Lau bridge.