HCMC bridge near Long An border built 22 years after approval

The new Long Kieng Bridge over the Phuoc Kieng Canal on Le Van Luong Street is one kilometer long including the roads leading up to it and 15 m wide, and costing VND589 billion (US$24.7 million).

It connects two communes in Nha Be, which lies on the border with Long An Province, an industrial hub and major rice producer.

With the old bridge already failing to meet the traffic demand, its replacement was approved in 2001.

But work on it dragged on and even stalled in 2019 over funding and land acquisition issues.

Construction finally resumed in September 2022.

Looking forward eagerly to its completion for years, many locals showed up to celebrate the inauguration on Friday.

For years they had been depending on a narrow iron bridge to cross the canal and had become fed up of the constant congestion it engendered.

Attending the event, chairwoman of the city legislature, the People’s Council, called the bridge a "quarter-century project."

She recalled that when checking its progress in March 2021, she had met a local woman named Lam Thi Nga.

Then aged 84, Nga had told her she "only wished to live until the day Long Kieng Bridge was completed," she said.