To date, six steel flyovers have opened totraffic in the southern hub, all of which are located at seriouscongestion-prone areas, especially during rush hours.
Among those, the Thu Duc flyover, built in July last year, is 570metres long and 16 metres wide. The four-lane flyover is designed forautomobile access only with a maximum speed of 60km per hour.
Another one is Hang Xanh intersection flyover that is located on theexisting Dien Bien Phu street in Binh Thanh district. The four-laneflyover, which is 390m long and 16m wide, has a designed speed of 40kmper hour.
Those two flyovers opened to traffic on the same day, January 27, 2013, one to two months earlier than planned.
The Lang Cha Ca steel flyover was the third opened to traffic on April30, the Liberation Day. The flyover is 244m long and 6.5m wide. It hastwo lanes: one lane for motorbikes and the other for automobiles ofunder 10 tonnes, both running from Cong Hoa to Hoang Van Thu streets.
Two more steel flyovers opened to traffic on the sameday, on August 27. The two-lane Feb.3 - Nguyen Tri Phuong–Ly Thai Toflyover in District 10 is more than 388m long and nearly 10m wide, whilethe two-lane Cong Hoa-Hoang Hoa Tham flyover is 268m long and nearly10m wide.
The two steel flyovers were finished one month earlier than planned after four months of construction.
The longest steel flyover that opened to traffic most recently, onOctober 19, is the Cay Go roundabout flyover on Feb. 3 Street.
The Y-shaped flyover is formed by two branches – one branch is 350mlong and 12-15.5m wide, connecting with Hong Bang Street, and the otherbranch is 230m long and 6.5m wide linked to Feb.3 Street.
The Cay Go roundabout flyover was built in five months at a cost of339.3 billion VND (16.1 million USD). It plays a key role in reducingtraffic as the roundabout is an important gateway that connects the citycentre with the southwestern region.
The Ho ChiMinh City Department of Transport said it had thought carefully inchoosing the locations for building those six steel flyovers in order toclear major congestion-prone areas in the city. It said there would bemore steel flyovers built in the future to cope with traffic congestion.
However, many experts have said the steel flyoversare just a temporary solution. They recommended that besides steelflyovers at intersections, the city develop public transport such as ametro and monorails to deal with traffic congestion, a serious problemin large cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.-VNA