Ministry holds expressway consultant accountable for flooding

This is the Ministry of Transport's verdict after sending a team to inspect the Dau Giay – Phan Thiet Expressway, which opened to traffic only in late April, and identify why a section in Binh Thuan Province was flooded on July 29.

The 100-meter section was inundated following heavy rains, holding up traffic for five hours.

At around 2 a.m. there was no way for the water to drain on either side and began instead to flood the low-lying section.

Some places were under a meter of water.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on either side of the water. The water started to recede at dawn, but some areas remained under half a meter of water and only vehicles with high clearance could traverse them.

The ministry said the flooded section runs along the Phan River, and the consultant, the Transport Engineering Consulting Joint Stock Company No. 533, had only considered the highest water level recorded in the river when designing the road and sewerage.

That was 43.14 m recorded in 1992.

But when the flooding occurred, it was flowing at 45.23 m.

The ministry said the consultancy had failed to factor in the fact that silt and vegetation along the banks had narrowed the river, and therefore bears responsibility though the error was not "intentional."

Experts from the ministry have recommended dredging the river near the expressway and removing the plants from its banks at the consultancy’s cost.

To ensure a long-term solution, the ministry has instructed the builder to hire another consultancy to review the area around the flood-prone section to decide if it needs to be raised.

The only culvert on the flooded section of Dau Giay - Phan Thiet Expressway, August 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Viet Quoc

At an earlier meeting this month the Binh Thuan Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said the only culvert on the flooded section was "small" and called for enlarging it in preparation for more heavy rains.

Huynh Ngoc Thanh, deputy director of the province Department of Transport, said the section should not have been so low or steep.

Running 99 km through Dong Nai and Binh Thuan, the expressway links up with the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway between HCMC and Dong Nai.

Together, they enable travel between HCMC and Phan Thiet in a little more than two hours as against six hours earlier.

Situated 177 km east of HCMC, Phan Thiet City is a tourist attraction famous for its beaches and sand dunes.