A section of the Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway where it meets National Highway 50 in Binh Chanh District of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
The Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway is under construction to connect the provinces of Long An and Dong Nai with Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Running 57.7 kilometers long, it will be the longest expressway in southern Vietnam once completed. Work started in 2014 on the project, which will cost VND31.3 trillion (US$1.34 billion); the project was initially targeted to be completed after five years.
However, the project is now just 80% complete and many contract packages have been suspended since 2019 due to funding issues.
The expressway project uses investment loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Asian Development Bank, and the Vietnamese government.
In its first phase, the expressway will have four lanes for vehicles to move at a maximum speed of 100kph, plus two emergency lanes.
Equipment is left abandoned at the construction site.
A guard at the site said construction has stopped for three years now.
"We have no idea when work will be resumed," he said.
A man drives a motorbike into the construction site as seen through a hole of a sign which warns people of danger and tells them to stay away from the area.
As the expressway is left half-finished, many motorcyclists have made use of all sections that have been completed to shorten their travel time.
Phuoc Khanh Bridge, a part of the expressway connecting the provinces of Long An and Dong Nai with HCMC, is half-finished.
The four-lane bridge runs more than three kilometers long and is nearly 22 meters wide. It crosses the Long Tau River, which is the natural border between HCMC's Can Gio District and Dong Nai's Nhon Trach District.
The state-run Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), the expressway's investor, signed a contract to build the bridge in a joint venture with Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui and the Transport Ministry's CIENCO4 Group in 2016, using official development assistance loans from JICA.
However, due to problems in allocating capital and extending the loan agreement, work on the bridge has been suspended since 2020, after more than VND2.3 trillion had been disbursed.
A section of the expressway in Binh Chanh District has been completed.
Last June, VEC asked for the government's permission to extend the project's completion deadline from 2023 to the third quarter of 2025. Four months later, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue ordered the project's investor to finish it in 2024.
He said the Ben Luc–Long Thanh Expressway is an important route of the Southern Key Economic Zone, which comprises HCMC and the seven provinces of Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Long An and Tien Giang.
It will be connected to Dong Nai's Long Thanh Airport, which is under construction to replace HCMC's Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Once completed, the project will become Vietnam's biggest airport.
