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Vehicles formed long rows on a section through Rach Chiec Bridge on Vo Nguyen Giap Street, heading towards downtown HCMC at around 6 a.m.. In around 30 minutes, thousands of vehicles flocked to the area, extending the rows all the way to an intersection of Thu Duc City. Several vehicles tried to escape from the traffic jam by getting to other roads, but that only made the congestion worse.
"Rach Chiec Bridge is usually congested during rush hours, but the situation in the morning was severe. I was stuck here for over two hours and late for work," said Nguyen Hoang, 36.
A representative of the Cat Lai traffic police, under the HCMC traffic police division, said the congestion was caused by the construction of a footbridge that connects to the Rach Chiec Station of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line. Due to a malfunctioned crane truck, construction had to be suspended, and the problem was only resolved at around 7 a.m. Traffic returned to normal at around 9 a.m.
A representative of the HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways, the main investor of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line, said construction of the footbridge is only done at night, normally from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day.
Rows of vehicles are seen stuck in traffic on Vo Nguyen Giap Street in HCMC. Video by VnExpress/Thi Thao
Footbridges will be built for nine elevated stations of the metro line to connect them with bus stations and neighborhoods. Most of them will be built along the Hanoi Highway-Vo Nguyen Giap route. All the footbridges are expected to be completed this year so the metro line can be opened in July as HCMC's first.
The Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line, spanning 20 km, costs over VND43.7 trillion ($1.78 billion). It is now 98% completed.
