Cat Lai Bridge linking HCMC, Long Thanh airport to break ground in 2026

The Cat Lai Bridge would be 4.7 km long and cost around VND18 trillion (US$682 million), Ho Van Ha, the province's vice chairman, said at a meeting held with Construction Corporation No.1 Joint Stock Company (CC1) to discuss building it to replace the ferry across the river, the province's natural border with HCMC.

Construction would begin in 2026 and the province plans to open the bridge to traffic in 2028, and so relevant agencies need to finalize its details for the People's Council to approve the investment plans, he said.

The bridge will begin on Nguyen Thi Dinh Street, 400 meters from the My Thuy interchange, and end at the Ben Luc–Long Thanh Expressway, now under construction and to go through Dong Nai, HCMC and Long An.

The bridge will be designed for maximum speeds of 80 kph, be 33.5 meters and have eight lanes and a vertical clearance of over 55 meters.

CC1 has proposed a public-private partnership with a combination of build–operate–transfer and build–transfer (BT) models funded publicly, a BT model or a BT model with the public funding in the form of land rather than cash.

Its own choice is the first model.

The bridge has figured Dong Nai and HCMC's plans for a long time since traffic in the area has increased steadily, but funding challenges and a lack of consensus on the location have delayed it.

But with Long Thanh airport, Vietnam's largest, nearing completion and likely to open next year, the bridge has become an urgent requirement.

It will connect the industrial hub of Nhon Trach in Dong Nai but also provide an additional route between HCMC and the airport, which are 40 km apart and now linked by National Highways 1 and 51 and the HCMC–Long Thanh Expressway.

CC1 also wants to build the 11.7-km Long Hung Bridge between HCMC's Ring Road 3 in Long Phuoc Ward and An Phuoc Commune in Dong Nai at an estimated VND11 trillion.