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Ministry confirms City expressway poles below par

The Transport Ministry has confirmed that concrete poles used in a section of the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway currently under construction are substandard.
The Transport Ministry has confirmed that concrete poles used in asection of the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expresswaycurrently under construction are substandard.

Itmade the confirmation in a report on the expressway project's packageN°3 submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on December 25.

The conclusion was reached after an inspection of the expresswaysection done on Tuesday by the ministry's Engineering Construction andQuality Management Bureau as well as the project management board.

The inspection immediately followed a report alleging substandardconstruction that was carried by the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaperearly Tuesday morning.

The paper had conducted itsown investigation after receiving a letter of denunciation about thequality of concrete poles used in expressway section that runs throughsouthern Dong Nai province's Long Thanh town.

It reported that as much as 30-40 percent of materials that have to be used to construct the poles had not been used.

The ministry's inspection team ordered four concrete poles to bepulled up at random for quality checks. The quality of the first poletaken out shocked the inspectors because it seemed to be deformed.

They suspect that much less concrete was used to build the pole thanoriginally designed. It was also found to be clammy and weak because itwas mainly built with stone, cement and soil, the inspectors found.

Concrete bits inside the pole easily fell off when inspectors used aniron bar to prick it. The same thing happened with two other poles. Thelack of cement was also found in the fourth concrete pole pulled up.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong said the ministry has ordered theVietnam Expressway Corporation to check quality of all concrete poles inthe section, identify causes and quickly repair all substandard onesbefore December 30 - when the section was set to open to traffic.

The ministry also ordered the corporation to strictly deal with anyviolations it found committed by relevant parties, including projectcontractor POSCO E&C of the Republic of Korea, consultant NipponKoei of Japan and Vietnam's Transport Engineering Design Inc South (TediSouth).

These actions have to be taken before nextMonday, the ministry has directed. Construction of the 55-kmexpressway, connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province, began inDecember 2009 with a total investment capital of over 20.6 trillion VND(968.2 million USD).-VNA
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