National Day holiday travel rush paralyzes HCMC streets

At 10 a.m., traffic police offiers re-routed vehicles at the road leading onto the HCMC-Long Thanh Expressway in Thu Duc City.

Due to the sheer number of vehicles, many were unable to enter Mai Chi Tho Street from Vo Nguyen Giap Street in the morning, and had to travel towards Bien Hoa City in Dong Nai Province instead. The police also close and reopen the expressway multiple times to re-route traffic, only allowing cars in once the road was clear enough.

Vehicles in HCMC use roads in Thu Duc City to travel to tourist destinations like Vung Tau, Phan Thiet, Nha Trang and Da Lat.

Blocking entrances into the expressway forced vehicles to line up over 3 km, from the Phu Huu bridge area to the Nguyen Duy Trinh roundabout.

This National Day holiday, workers are getting days off from Saturday (Aug. 31) to Tuesday next week (Sept. 3). On Friday, several entrances in Hanoi and HCMC already saw traffic congestions, with some lasting until midnight.

At the roundabout of Vo Chi Cong-Nguyen Duy Trinh, rows of vehicles could not move on Saturday morning.

At 10:30 a.m., after 15 minutes of waiting at the roundabout, Binh, from Thu Duc City, had to call for the police's help to re-route traffic.

"This area is already packed with cars on normal days, so it becomes horribly congested during the holidays," he said, adding that the road is the closest entrance to enter the Long Thanh expressway.

Several drivers and passengers got off vehicles to wait while the road was closed.

"I waited for an hour and still could not continue the journey. Closing down the expressway for too long affect the passengers' intineraries," said driver Nguyen Huu Trung (R), as he sits on the road by his passenger bus, waiting for the traffic to clear.

Ha Dang Dung, 52, eats lunch on his truck. He said it took him about an hour to traverse a 4 km section, delivering goods to Cat Lai Port.

"There is only this road left, so I have no choice but to wait," he said.

Rows of trucks and cars move slowly on both sides of Vo Chi Cong Street.

Motorbikes get on the sidewalks to move.

Motorbikes maneuver in-between cars, trying to find a way out of the congestion.

At the Ngon Ngay bridge area, trucks continually moved in and out of parking spots, disrupting traffic.

The My Thuy intersection is also congested as vehicles traveled towards the Cat Lai Port.

Rows of vehicles span several kilometers along Mai Chi Tho Street.

At around 11 a.m., roads continued to be closed and reopened constantly.

At the western entrance of HCMC that leads to the Mekong Delta, traffic flowed more smoothly compared to Friday night.