The project to expand National Highway 50 through Binh Chanh District stretches nearly 7 km, from the intersection with Nguyen Van Linh Boulevard to the city's border with Long An Province.
Costing VND1.5 trillion (US$59 million) from the state budget, it includes works to build a new 4-km road parallel to the highway and expand the existing route from eight to 34 meters for six lanes.
After construction started in late 2022, residents on the two sides of the road have collectively cleared their houses, handing over the land to the construction unit.
Along the highway, rows of houses have been dismantled and moved back, creating space for the road expansion.
National Highway 50, which runs 88 km between HCMC’s District 8 and Long An's Can Giuoc District, is one of the two highways connecting the city and the delta. The other one is National Highway 1.
The section through Ho Chi Minh City is narrow and often experiences congestion.
There is now just one expressway linking the city and the delta, the HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway.
Houses have been set back about 20 meters on one side of the road.
The National Highway 50 expansion project affects nearly 600 homes mostly belonging to local people, with a total compensation budget of about VND1.28 trillion.
Binh Chanh authorities are in charge of clearing site and compensating affected families using the district’s budget.
Around 30 properties are still to be cleared, and district authorities are working with relevant parties to resolve issues, aiming to complete the handover within the month.
Many houses, after being cleared, have been renovated by the owners, waiting for the road expansion project to be completed to stabilize their lives and businesses.
Nguyen Anh Duy (L), 32, shovels the sand in front of his house to cover a pipe after his family handed over a portion of it for the project and fixed the façade of the house.
"For many years, National Highway 50 has been narrowed, making it inconvenient to travel. Every time I’m on the road I always worry about possible accidents due to the dense traffic of large vehicles," he said.
Huynh The Tai, 56, mentioned that his family received a compensation decision 10 years ago to give up an area of more than 40 m2 for the highway expansion, but it took until now for the work to be deployed.
Nguyen Thi Tu Ry, 81, said her family began demolishing the front part of the house and handing over the land to the project about three months ago.
The foundation of her house is currently about one meter above the road level, making it difficult to access, so they are temporarily filling the front area with soil to facilitate entry and exit.
"I hope the project will facilitate travel for the residents," she said.
Machinery and materials are gathered at a construction site where residents have handed over land.
According to the Transportation Works Construction Investment Project Management Authority of HCMC, which manages the project, after more than a year, the overall progress of the National Highway 50 expansion currently sits at 48%.
The authority aims to complete the parallel road and expanding the existing road by the end of next year.
According to the project’s manager, the biggest challenge in the parallel road section is site clearance, as 11 families have yet to hand over the land needed for building the road.
It said delayed procedures in compensating affected people are to be blamed.
The unit has urged the city to resolve this difficulty soon and hand over the land for the project in July to meet the traffic opening schedule planned for the end of this year.
