News Education Environment Traffic Crime

Saigon seeks to ease congestion near airport with overpasses

By VnExpress February 8, 2017 | 05:03 am PT

Airplanes parked at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Reuters.

Construction of two new overpasses worth $33 million should be completed within six months, officials say.

Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday started work on two overpasses near Tan Son Nhat airport, aiming to reduce traffic jams that often build up on surrounding streets.

The projects, worth around $33 million in total, are expected to be completed after six months.

One Y-shaped overpass will be built right in front of the airport while the other, N-shaped, seeks to ease traffic at the nearby intersection between Nguyen Kiem and Nguyen Thai Son.

Tan Son Nhat is Vietnam’s largest airport. It was designed for 25 million passengers per year, but last year it served 32.5 million, up 22.4 percent from 2015.

Congestion is a chronic problem for the areas outside the airport and it usually worsens during holiday seasons.

A new airport has been planned for the neighboring Dong Nai Province to reduce some of the pressure on Tan Son Nhat. But it will take quite a long time to finish this megaproject, which still doesn't have an official design.