VietNamNet Bridge - Thu Thiem Tunnel under the Saigon River and the entire East-West road will be opened to traffic on November 22, to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the Southern Uprising (November 23, 1940).
Earlier, HCM City authorities planed to open to traffic part of the route on September 2. Rescue drills will be carried out in October.

Thu Thiem Tunnel is the most important work in the project to build the city’s East-West road, which connects District 2 to the east and Binh Chanh District to the west of the city.

This tunnel is the most modern of its kind in Southeast Asia, with 1.49 kilometers long, 9 meters high, and 33 meters wide, 6 lanes for cars and motorbikes, and two 2-meter emergency exits on the sides. Vehicles will be allowed to travel up to 60 km per hour. Large trucks will be able to travel through the tunnel at specific time.

The East – West Avenue project began on January 31, 2005 with total investment of VND9,864bil (US$616.5mil), including VND6.394bil ($399.6mil) from official development assistance (ODA) from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC),  and HCM City’s capital.

The avenue is 22km in length, running from the National 1A highway to the Hanoi highway. The avenue starts from Cat Lai crossroads to District 2, via districts 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 and Binh Tan to Binh Chanh District.

The project includes major following sub-works: the 1.49km Thu Thiem tunnel, five overhead bridges, eight regular bridges, five crossroads, seven to 10 pedestrian bridges, one new road of over 5.6km in Thu Thiem, upgrades for three old bridges and other works.

The project was scheduled to be completed in 2007, but until now it is really complete.

PV