Only Saturday five days since investor Vietnam Expressway Corporation put the ETC system into use, traffic became congested in both directions.
While authorities blamed the gridlock on many cars stopping in the emergency lane to get the ETC card, it could be seen that many cars still had to pay with cash after the card failed to work.
The expressway section near Long Thanh Bridge crossing the Xoai Rap River, a tributary of the Dong Nai River and the Long Phuoc toll gate, saw the heaviest congestion.
It took drivers more than 15 minutes to get through a section of less than 2 km from the Long Thanh Bridge to the Long Phuoc toll gate.
"Normally it takes me no more than an hour and a half to travel from Dong Nai to HCMC, but it has been more than three hours and I have not even reached the city," said driver Nguyen Van Trung, 33.
Cars stopped in an emergency lane to get the ETC card. The HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay is the first expressway in southern Vietnam to apply the ETC system.
Vietnam will have all expressways use the ETC system starting Aug. 1.
A driver pays the toll fee with cash. There were several toll gates along the expressway that remained open to have staff collect toll fees in person in case the ETC card did not work.
The 55km, four-lane HCMC – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway cost VND20.6 trillion ($882.6 million) to build.
It was used by 45,000-50,000 vehicles daily in 2019, often causing gridlocks in certain sections since its designed daily capacity is around 44,000 vehicles.
According to an approved plan, the expressway will be expanded to eight lanes to catch up with increasing travel demand once the Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province, set to be the country’s largest airport, begins operations.
