For almost two weeks, a lane on Phu My Bridge running from District 7 to Thu Duc City, both home to large expat communities, has been blocked to fix an expansion joint, causing serious gridlock.
A team of almost 20 people, including traffic police and militiamen, have been forced to manage the situation around the clock.
Two expansion joints, which serve to prevent cracks in the concrete surface of the bridge when temperatures change, were damaged two years ago. The repair work, which started earlier this month, is expected to last for three months at a total cost exceeding VND21 billion ($900,700).
From now until Aug. 2, repairs will be carried out on the leftmost lane. A month later, the construction unit will move to the middle lanes before completing work on the rightmost.
The construction lane is barricaded, causing serious traffic congestion.
On Thursday afternoon, cars and container trucks formed a tailback of almost two kilometers along Nguyen Van Linh and Huynh Tan Phat streets, which lead to the bridge from District 7.
Vu, 20, a construction worker, helps regulate traffic at the foot of the bridge, as assigned by the contractor.
Vu is among five staff tasked with 24/7 regulation work.
"It takes almost two hours to travel two kilometers," Chien, 39, said as he surfed the internet on his smartphone.
Some motorbike drivers try to escape the heavy traffic by using the breakdown lane, which is less than one meter wide.
Crossing the Saigon River, Phu My Bridge stretches more than two kilometers long and is the city’s largest cable-stayed bridge.
Costing VND2.1 trillion ($90 million), the bridge was put into use in 2009 after four years of construction.
The project belongs to the city's Ring Road No.2, the only traffic axis connecting District 7 with Thu Duc City and one of two routes in and out of Cat Lai, the largest seaport in the country.
